Packed full of quite interesting new features like FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet), VPC (Virtual Port Channel), NPV (N-Port Vitalisation) support, etc there is little wonder why!
I want to do a quick rundown of FCoE, as in my mind this is a great and useful feature!
Firstly, what is FCoE?
To understand this concept we'll have understand what makes up a FCoE frame...
Note that a basic frame/packet consists of 2 things, namely the payload (data), and the header (addressing, checksum, etc).
In this image note that the data portion is referred to as the "Payload", and the rest is just protocol headers.
The Fibre Channel Payload is encapsulated in the FC (Fibre Channel) header this makes up the FC frame. The whole FC frame is encapsulated in a FCoE header, thus the FC frame becomes the Payload in a FCoE frame, and gets a new set of headers around it. Last step is basically where the whole FCoE frame gets encapsulated in yet another set of headers, the Ethernet headers.
In lamens terms the packets being sent from the switch is ethernet packets, but instead of sending ethernet data it sends encapsulated FC data in the payload.
Ehternet and FC traffic differs in the type of data it's used for. Essentially an FC frame is just a SCSI frame encapsulated in an FC header. So basicall FC traffic is data, nomally sent from a SAN (Storage Area Network) switch... It's DATA. Whereas ethernet is as we all know network data... Connecting the the web via network for instance is ethernet.
The Nexus 5000 is one of only a few switches in the market that bridged the gap between Ethernet and FC, using FCoE we are now able to have our SAN connectivity and our Ethernet connectivity through 1 (one) single network port known as a CNA (Converged Network Adaptor). This is typically 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, and looks similar to a FC port, but the card, port and cable does differ from FC.
Config...
The nicest thing about this technology is that Cisco made the config quite easy!
Just a few quick steps, and you're off!
The first step in the process is to enable the FCoE feature.
nex01-lab# conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.nex01-lab(config)# feature fcoe
FC license checked out successfully
fc_plugin extracted successfully
FC plugin loaded successfully
FCoE manager enabled successfully
FC enabled on all modules successfully
nex01-lab(config)#
Now create your VSAN
nex01-lab(config)# vsan database
nex01-lab(config-vsan-db)# vsan 3777 name FCoE
nex01-lab(config-vsan-db)# exit
nex01-lab(config)#
Next step is to create your FCoE VLAN (to correspond the your VSAN)
nex01-lab(config)#
nex01-lab(config)# vlan 3777
nex01-lab(config-vlan)#
Next step is where you enable FCoE for the VLAN and map it to a VSAN
nex01-lab(config-vlan)#
nex01-lab(config-vlan)# fcoe vsan 3777
nex01-lab(config-vlan)#
Now you create a VFC (Virtual Fibre Channel) port, and bind it to a physical interface.
nex01-lab(config)# inter vfc 1
nex01-lab(config-if)# bind interface ethernet 1/10
nex01-lab(config-if)# no shutdown
nex01-lab(config-if)# exit
nex01-lab(config)#
Now you have to add your VFC to the VSAN database.
nex01-lab(config)#
nex01-lab(config)# vsan database
nex01-lab(config-vsan-db)# vsan 3777 interface vfc 1
nex01-lab(config-vsan-db)# exit
nex01-lab(config)#
Easy as that!
Now verify connectivity with the following commands:
show interface brief
show flogi database
show fcns database
If all is well your ports should be up and connected!
I hope this has been informative.
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