UCS to Brocade Connectivity Options

[alf]

Hello Team,

a customer is evaluating UCS attached to a Brocade DCX SAN Fabric via multiple FC Uplinks. As recommended FI is in NPV mode and DCX is in NPIV mode. FI uplinks are configured with common VSAN loadbalancing the servers via round robbin on those FC uplinks.

However, the customer has some concerns that the FC uplinks may become a bottleneck due to the automatic or manual selection method, especially when the quantity of servers in the FI domain becomes larger. So therefore he is looking for sth like FC-ISL oder FC-PortChannel.

I already mentioned MDS series as a potential replacement for the DCX, with the option for FC-Portchannel between FI and MDS, but the customer likes his Brocade environment for a long time.

Question:

Is, in addition to the published interoperability documents from Cisco and Brocade,

• http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/ps10265/ps10281/whitepaper_C07-730016.pdf
• http://community.brocade.com/dtscp75322/attachments/dtscp75322/fibre/1171/1/Cisco+UCS+to+Brocade+SAN+Interoperability.pdf
• Cisco Live Session BRKCOM-2007 - UCS SAN Deployment Models and Best Practices

a way feasible, to use FCoE with LACP portchannel beween FI and DCX to overcome this issue ?

If this would be an option, does that mean, I have to switch the FI from NPV into FC-Switching mode ?

Thx for any comment, suggestion or reference in advance

Alfred

[Walter Dey]

Hi Alfred

There is no pc solution between FI (NPV) and Brocade (NPIV) mode. This is a well known caveat, which could lead to unequal load on the FC uplinks; e.g. some links are failing; there load is redistributed over the remaining working links; after the Problem is fixed, and links are back, you have no Redistribution of the traffic.

With MDS (or N5k) you have F-port channeling trunking with NPV !

Regarding FCoE; this would be a FCoE Multi hop solution: FCoE from Blade -- Fabric Interconnect -- Brocade DCX; one would use clasical lacp pc, no vpc; however you face the FCoE interop challenge !

My 2c; I would go the FC path ! the above Scenario is very unlikely and could be worked around, by enable / disable all the FC ports (per fabric). 

Hope that helps !

Walter.