UCS FI F-Port Channeling vs. F-Port Trunking

[nicksousa]

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/storage-networking/mds-9000-nx-os-software-release-4-1/white_paper_c11-459263.html

What does "feature fport-channel-trunk" do exactly? I don't understand the difference between an F-Port Trunk and an F-Port Channel as it relates to a typical UCS FI in End Host Mode. Does "feature fport-channel-trunk" do both?

Can you please share your NPV edge switch and NPIV core switch interface configurations, for a typical FI that has SAN port channels configured?

[calopez2 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Fport-trunk allows an F-port to do  trunking, i.e. allow multiple VSANs on an F-port, just like an ISL.

Fport-Port-Channeling allows an F-port to do  Port-Channel on an F-port.

i.e. on a Nexus 5k you enable both features by a single command:

5596-b(config)# feature fport-channel-trunk 

EXAMPLE:

On UCS, you enable FC Uplink trunking on the FI.

Step 1	In the Navigation pane, click the SAN tab.
Step 2	On the SAN tab, expand SAN > SAN Cloud.
Step 3	Click the node for the fabric where you want to enable FC uplink trunking.
Step 4	In the Work pane, click the General tab.
Step 5	In the Actions area, click Enable FC Uplink Trunking.
Step 6	If Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a confirmation dialog box, click Ye

 

[Walter Dey · Accepted solution]

Does "feature fport-channel-trunk" do both? ==> Yes !

This is a Feature between a NPV (UCS FI in FC end host mode) and a NPIV node.

If you would not use it, you would Need one link per VSAN between NPV and NPIV. Therefore trunking is a link optimization. And channeling allows scaling of bandwidth between NPV and NPIV.