About F And Tf Portchannels; About Portchanneling And Trunking - Cisco MDS 9000 Series Configuration Manual

Chapter 6 Configuring PortChannels
S e n d d o c u m e n t a t i o n c o m m e n t s t o m d s f e e d b a c k - d o c @ c i s c o . c o m

About F and TF PortChannels

An F PortChannel is also a logical interface that combines a set of F ports connected to the same Fibre
Channel node and operates as one link between the F ports and the NP ports. The F port channels support
bandwidth utilization and availability like the E port channels. F PortChannels are mainly used to
connect MDS core and NPV switches to provide optimal bandwidth utilization and transparent failover
between the uplinks of a VSAN.
An F PortChannel trunk combines the functionality and advantages of a TF port and an F PortChannel.
This logical link uses the Cisco PTP and PCP protocols over Cisco EPP (ELS).
If a Cisco MDS 9124 or 9134 switch is used as a core switch, only a nontrunking F PortChannel is
Note
supported. Trunking is not supported on this platform when NPIV enabled.

About PortChanneling and Trunking

Trunking is a commonly used storage industry term. However, the Cisco NX-OS software and switches
in the Cisco MDS 9000 Family implement trunking and PortChanneling as follows:
•
•
See
Figure 6-2
Switch 1
PortChanneling and trunking are used separately across an ISL:
Figure 6-3
Switch 1
•
OL-19445-02, Cisco MDS NX-OS Release 4.2(x)
PortChanneling enables several physical links to be combined into one aggregated logical link.
Trunking enables a link transmitting frames in the EISL format to carry (trunk) multiple VSAN
traffic. For example, when trunking is operational on an E port, that E port becomes a TE port. A
TE port is specific to switches in the Cisco MDS 9000 Family. An industry standard E port can link
to other vendor switches and is referred to as a nontrunking interface (see
Figure 6-3).
Chapter 5, "Configuring Trunking,"
Trunking Only
Any other
switch
ISL
E port E port
PortChanneling and Trunking
Switch 2
ISL 1
ISL 2
ISL 3
Port channel
PortChanneling—Interfaces can be channeled between the following sets of ports:
E ports and TE ports
–
for information on trunked interfaces.
Switch 1
EISL
TE port TE port
Trunking
Switch 1
EISL 1
EISL 2
EISL 3
Port channel
and trunking
Cisco MDS 9000 Family NX-OS Interfaces Configuration Guide
About PortChannels
Figure 6-2 and
Switch 2
Switch 2
6-3