Chapter 8 Configuring San Port Channels; Configuring San Port Channels; Information About San Port Channels - Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Configuration Manual

Configuring SAN Port Channels

This chapter contains the following sections:
•
Configuring SAN Port Channels
SAN port channels refer to the aggregation of multiple physical interfaces into one logical interface to provide
higher aggregated bandwidth, load balancing, and link redundancy.
On Cisco Nexus devices, SAN port channels can include physical Fibre Channel interfaces, but not virtual
Fibre Channel interfaces. A SAN port channel can include up to eight Fibre Channel interfaces.

Information About SAN Port Channels

About E and TE Port Channels
An E port channel refers to the aggregation of multiple E ports into one logical interface to provide higher
aggregated bandwidth, load balancing, and link redundancy. Port channel can connect to interfaces across
switching modules, so a failure of a switching module cannot bring down the port channel link. Cisco Nexus
devices support a maximum of four SAN port channels in FC switch mode, which includes E/TE-port port
channels.
A SAN port channel has the following functionality:
• Provides a point-to-point connection over ISL (E ports) or EISL (TE ports). Multiple links can be
• Increases the aggregate bandwidth on an ISL by distributing traffic among all functional links in the
• Load balances across multiple links and maintains optimum bandwidth utilization. Load balancing is
• Provides high availability on an ISL. If one link fails, traffic previously carried on this link is switched
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Configuring SAN Port Channels, page 95
combined into a SAN port channel.
channel.
based on the source ID, destination ID, and exchange ID (OX ID).
to the remaining links. If a link goes down in a SAN port channel, the upper layer protocol is not aware
Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS SAN Switching Configuration Guide, Release 5.2(1)N1(1)
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