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Ask the Experts: Design, Plan, Configure, Implement, and Troubleshoot Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)

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Design, Plan, Configure, Implement, and Troubleshoot Fibre Channel over Ethernet FCoE with Ozden KarakokWith Ozden Karakok

Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn how to design, plan, configure, implement, and troubleshoot Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) with Cisco expert Ozden Karakok. FCoE is an encapsulation of Fibre Channel frames over Ethernet networks. FCoE allows you to create flexible, agile converged networks at the edge and core for multihop FCoE with fast, high-density Cisco Nexus 7000 Series and Cisco Nexus 5000 Series access switches. These switches support multiple Ethernet storage protocols, offering superior investment protection for enterprise and virtualization environments and cloud-ready data centers. Consolidate, scale, and save using multihop FCoE.

Ozden Karakok is a technical leader for the Customer Advanced Engineering Team in the Global Technical Center in Europe, supporting data center and unified computing solutions through product testing and early field trials. She has been with Cisco for more than 14 years, specializing in storage area and data center networks. She previously worked as an escalation engineer in the Cisco Storage Technical Assistance Center. Karakok graduated from Bosphorus University and holds CCIE certification 6331 in Routing and Switching, SNA/IP, and Storage Networking.

Remember to use the rating system to let Ozden know if you have received an adequate response.

Ozden might not be able to answer each question because of the volume expected during this event. Remember that you can continue the conversation on the Data Center community Unified Computing subcommunity shortly after the event. This event lasts through Friday, May 17, 2013. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other Cisco Support Community members.

17 Replies 17

Hi Tenaro,

I am glad that you asked this question. At this moment Cisco has 40G FCoE support on Nexus 6004 and Nexus 6001 platforms which was launced at the begining of 2013. At this moment none of the vendors have 100G FCoE support. 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports can be connected to  four 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports using QSFP breakout cables and we support FCoE on this connection.

I believe Nexus 6004/6001 Data sheets will be useful:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps12806/ps12807/data_sheet_c78-723667.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps12806/ps12869/data_sheet_c78-726128.html

QSFP types are listed in:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps12806/product_bulletin_c25-726519.html

And a white paper from my friend J Metz about 40Gb FCoE:

http://www.fibrechannel.org/library/documents/FCIA_FCSolutionGuide_2012_40GbFCoE.pdf

I hope this answers your quesion.

Thanks,

Ozden

I didn't have a chance to configure yet either 100G ports but I'm guessing Nexus will allow us to specify 10Gbps speed on 100 Gb interface, right? Will FCoE work then?

Good Morning Tenaro,

At this moment we have 100G support on "Cisco Nexus 7000 M2-Series 2-Port 100 Gigabit Ethernet Module with XL"

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps9402/data_sheet_c78-695859.html

M2-Series 2 port XL module supports 100G and 40G with CFP transceiver modules. Here are the CFPs that M2 module supports:

For 100G: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/modules/ps5455/data_sheet_c78-633027.html

For 40G:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/interfaces_modules/transceiver_modules/compatibility/matrix/OL_24900.pdf

In short N7K-M202CF-22L module supports CFP-40G-SR4 & CFP-40G-LR4 transceiver modules with minimum NX-OS 6.1(2) version. So we don't have breakout cable support on M2-series 100G XL module, you will not be able to configure 10G on 100G interfaces at this moment on Nexus platforms. Please stay tune, we will have this support coming soon.

Coming to your FCoE question where you asked if 100G interfaces can be configured as 10G FCoE interfaces. The answer will be no at this stage.

I am attaching a slide that is showing all of our FCoE and FC portfolio as of today:

I hope this answers your question.

Thanks again for your interest to this forum.

Ozden

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