Uplink Fibre Channel Ports - UCS GUI Config Guide

[vikas.k.srivastava]

Hi All ,

Could someone please explain what the following means in the GUI Configuration guide of UCS @

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/gui/config/guide/2.0/b_UCSM_GUI_Configuration_Guide_2_0_chapter_0101.pdf

Uplink Fibre Channel Ports

Uplink Fibre Channel ports handle FCoE traffic between the fabric interconnect and the next layer of the

storage area network. All network-bound FCoE traffic is pinned to one of these ports.

By default, Fibre Channel ports are uplink. However, you can configure them to function as Fibre Channel

storage ports. This is useful in cases where a Cisco UCS requires a connection to a Direct-Attached Storage

(DAS) device.

My question is , how could the FC Port handle FCoE traffic ? My understanding was FCoE will be traverse and Enthernet link only .

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/gui/config/guide/2.0/b_UCSM_GUI_Configuration_Guide_2_0_chapter_0101.pdf

Thanks for all your help

Regards

Vikas Srivastava

[johearly]

The UCS itself does not have any FC on it, all FC traffic on the UCS system is over FCoE.  This is part of the UCS's unified fabric.  The FC ports on the interconnect are where the UCS talks to the normal FC infrastructure such as a Cisco MDS 9100 FC switch or similar.  Does that answer your question??

[vikas.k.srivastava]

Thanks John ,

I understand that all FC Traffic within UCS system is FCoE  , is FCoE carried over the FC Module as well ??

I am just trying to understand the following statement in the configuration guide :

"Uplink Fibre Channel ports handle FCoE traffic between the fabric interconnect and the next layer of the

storage area network. All network-bound FCoE traffic is pinned to one of these ports."

Does it mean that for the FCoE traffic within the UCS system , the ethernet header from the FCoE packet is removed and the FC Frame is switched over to the FC Module .

Thanks for all your help .

Vikas

[johearly · Accepted solution]

Within the FC module of the Fabric Interconnect is where the speration of FC vs FCoE happens, so this is where the FC frame is extracted from within the Ethernet frame.