I hope this helps. For integrating UCS in FC NPV mode, you need to enable NPIV on the N5k (feature NPIV)
Fiber Channel (FC) Ports on Nexus 5000
Cisco Nexus 5000 is a Cisco Data Center switch platform that supports conventional Ethernet, Storage Area Network (SAN) and Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). The switch platform has support for connection directly to native Fiber Channel (FC) SAN network with its FC ports. This is needed at least for now as most of customers' storages are still using FC or are behind FC network.
This post will look at specifically on how to enable FC ports on Nexus 5500 (Nexus 5548UP and Nexus 5596UP) when we need to connect and integrate to FC network. In addition to that, we will look at some of the rules or restrictions that are worth to note based on the current hardware implementation when allocating ports on the switch for FC.
Cisco Nexus 5548UP and Nexus 5596UP are Unified Fabric switches that have 32 and 48 Fixed SFP+ ports, respectively. This fixed or built-in ports are unified ports which means that each of the ports can be used for conventional Ethernet, FCoE or FC. Out of the box, all of the 32 or 48 ports are "Ethernet" port type. As the name implies, with this port type, the port are ready for us to be used as conventional Ethernet port or for FCoE. Remember that FCoE is basically transporting FC traffic over Ethernet, so we need "Ethernet" port type for FCoE.
In that case, what if we need to use some of the built-in ports for FC?
To use some of the ports as FC ports, we need to change the port type of the port(s) that we intent to use for FC connection. Here's an example of commands to change port type on the switch:
N5K(config)#slot 1
N5K(config-port)#port 41-48 type fc
N5K(config-port)#copy running-config startup-config
N5K(config-port)#Reload
!
As the above command example, we change ports 31 and 32 from the default "Ethernet" to "FC" type. Similarly, to convert back from FC to Ethernet port type:
N5K(config)#slot 1
N5K(config-port)#port 41-48 type ethernet
N5K(config-port)#copy running-config startup-config
N5K(config-port)#Reload
!
Note: Refer to this Cisco's Command Reference document for further detail of this command: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5000/sw/command/reference/layer2/n5k-l2_cmds_p.html#wp2326019
You might surprise that there's a reload command in the end? Yes, you need to reload the entire switch to convert port type. So...one of the important notes here is that, as much as possible, convert the ports before the switch is in production.
After the port type has been changed from Ethernet to FC, the FC port will not be enabled on the switch until FCOE feature is enabled:
N5K(config)#feature FCOE
C license checked out successfully
fc_plugin extracted successfully
FC plugin loaded successfully
FCoE manager enabled successfully
FC enabled on all modules successfully
Enabled FCoE QoS policies successfully
After that, we verify that the port type is changed successfully and the FC ports appear on the switch:
N5K# show interface brief
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interface Vsan Admin Admin Status SFP Oper Oper Port
Mode Trunk Mode Speed Channel
Mode (Gbps)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fc1/41 1 auto on sfpAbsent -- -- --
fc1/42 1 auto on sfpAbsent -- -- --
fc1/43 1 auto on sfpAbsent -- -- --
fc1/44 1 auto on sfpAbsent -- -- --
fc1/45 1 auto on sfpAbsent -- -- --
fc1/46 1 auto on sfpAbsent -- -- --
fc1/47 1 auto on sfpAbsent -- -- --
fc1/48 1 auto on sfpAbsent -- -- --
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ethernet VLAN Type Mode Status Reason Speed Port
Interface Ch #
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eth1/1 1 eth trunk down SFP validation failed 10G(D) 22
Eth1/2 1 eth access down SFP not inserted 10G(D) --
Eth1/3 1 eth trunk down SFP validation failed 10G(D) 32
Eth1/4 1 eth access down SFP not inserted 10G(D) --
Besides the fixed ports, each of the switch model have slot for expansion module for increasing the port density. The number of slot is 1 for Nexus 5548UP and 3 for 5596UP. For supporting FC, the following modules are available to choose from:
- Fibre Channel plus Ethernet module that provides eight Ethernet port and eight native Fibre Channel ports.
The first 8 ports of this module is Ethernet port and the remaining 8 ports are FC ports. The location of Ethernet and FC ports are indicated with different colors.
- Unified port module that provides up to sixteen Ethernet ports OR up to sixteen native Fibre Channel ports
This is unified port, similar to the fixed or built-in ports whereby it's up to us to use the ports either for Ethernet or FC. Probably you only want to use some of the ports or even the entire module for FC.
