UCS 6120 connecting to Brocade 300 FC Switch

[jhetrick]

We are purchasing a UCS with 6120's and will connect the FC modules to our Brocade 300 8GB switches.  My questions are:

1. Are there any issues with connecting the 6120's to the 300's?

2. Can I have two seperate fabrics?

3. Are there any potential loop issues or latency since I will be going from the 6120's via the 300's to my EMC CX4?

Basically any feedback is welcome :-)

Thanks!!

[simon.geary · Accepted solution]

1. Brocade switches will work just fine connected to the 6120. The main requirement is that they support NPIV.
2. Yes you can, and indeed this would be the recommended route. Fabric Interconnect A will connect to Brocade A, while Fabric Interconnect B connects to Brocade B. Neither the Fabric Interconnects nor the Brocades are cross-connected, leaving you with two distinct fabrics. In each Service Profile in UCS Manager you can then configure a vHBA for each fabric.
3. No loops will exist, although the Fabric Interconnects themselves will introduce a small amount of latency, as outlined in this link. Tiny enough to be negligible though, and as the link explains the fabric is lossless.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/ps10265/ps10276/data_sheet_c78-524724.html

[jhetrick]

Hi Simon thank you for your help!!

Do you or anyone else know if there are any special settings required in the 6120 or on the Brocade 300's besides having NPIV enabled?  I have searched the forums and cannot find any issues or special settings but have seen a few comments on "switch mode" and setting "uplink ports" so any feedback is appreciated!

Thanks!

[David McFarland · Accepted solution]

Janice,

In UCS, the only setting for the physical fibre channel connections to a NPIV enabled SAN switch is "uplink". Make sure you have configured your FC uplink ports in the UCS equipment tab. The remaining items on the UCS side to check would be to ensure that you have defined a VSAN in the SAN tab, and in the equipment tab assigned that VSAN to the configured FC uplink port(s). These should normally be VSAN 1 by default.

In the case of Brocade, you can use the default VSAN 1 value.

On the Brocade side, ensure that NPIV is both enabled and licensed. On the Brocade run portCfgShow on the port connected to the UCS and see if NPIV is enabled. if it is disabled, run portCfgNpivPort 1 to enable it.

[iwearing]

David,

I read this post with interest as it it similar to a setup that I am about to deploy.

I will be connecting native FC to 2 x upstraem Brocade Fibre channel switches. On UCS do I still need to create 2 VSANs for Fabric A and B along with a FCOE Vlan or should I use the default VSAN 1 on both FIs due to connectivity to Brocade FC switches..