UCS 6248UP to Brocade/EMC DS-4100B ISL

[DON PETERSON]

I am trying to ISL between two EMC Connectrix DS-4100Bs and two 6248UP FIs.  The DS-4100Bs are running FW 6.4.2 and the 6248s are running FW 2.0(1s).  I have the DS-4100Bs running in native mode and the 6248s are running in FC switched mode.  I have the FIs in FC switched mode because I have storage directly attached to them.  I have NPIV enabled on the DS-4100B uplink ports and I am using a single link per switch, no trunking.  I am also using the default VSAN(1) on the 6248 uplinks.  When I try to bring the ports up I get the error: Isolation due to zone merge failure.  I have tried creating a different VSAN on the 6248s instead of using the default one and I've tried turning default zoning on and off.  What can I do to get the ISL to come up.  Do the DS-4100Bs have to run in interop mode; if so which one?  Any help is appreciated. Thanks

[rammuthaiya]

Hi,

We can not have ISL between UCS and Brocade and other than VSAN 1 will not work in brocade environment.

VSAN is proprietary of Cisco.

[DON PETERSON]

I know that VSANs are not supported by Brocade, but I had read a post on another board where someone said they tried a VSAN other than the defaul VSAN on an ISL between Brocade and Cisco and it made the ISL come up.  The Brocade switch is listed on Cisco's support matrix and the 6248 is listed on EMCs support matrix.  If I have the 6248s in EHM the ISL comes up; but I cannot run in EHM because I have direct attached storage.  I am goign to try and put the Brocades in interop mode and see what happens. Thanks

[lwatta]

Don,

When you are in EHM the link between the 6248 and Brocade 4100 is not an ISL its NPIV. The 6248 looks like a remote line card to the 4100. In switch mode it is a true ISL. I'm pretty sure interop between a 6248 and Brocade 4100 is not suppported, so even if you get it to work you could run into issues down the road.

Is there a reason you can't plug your direct storage in the Brocade instead of the 6248?

louis

[DON PETERSON]

We are doing a SAN migration.  Our old SAN is connected to the Brocades and the new SAN, which is FCoE only, is connected to the 6248s.  We will eventually be migrating everythign into UCS so it just made sense to direct attach the new SAN to the 6248s.

[sean-torres]

Hi,

I'm implementing the same scenario than you, so could you solve your problem at the finish?

[Walter Dey]

This will not work, because

- connecting a storage array by means of FC or FCoE, your FI (6248) has to configured in FC switching mode

- connecting the FI (6248) to a Brocade Fabric can only be done, with FI in FC EHM (NPV Mode); there is no FC interop mode support between FI (6248) and Brocade.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/servers-unified-computing/ucs-infrastructure-ucs-manager-software/116082-config-ucs-das-00.html