Extension Blade Overview - Broadcom Brocade X6-8 Director Hardware Installation Manual

53-1004105-13 Hardware Installation Guide
The following table defines the eight-port Fibre Channel port groups for configuring trunk groups or "trunks." Color coding
on the physical blade identifies the port groups. On the blade, ports belonging to the same port group are indicated with
the same color border beneath the port on the blade label. Ports belonging to the same ASIC are indicated by a border
with a similar color tone.
Table 23: Port Groups for Configuring Trunks
Port Number Port Group
0–7 0
8–15 1
16–23 2
24–31 3
32–39 4
40–47 5
48-55 6
56-63 7
Following are the requirements for forming trunk groups:
•
All ports in a trunk group must belong to the same port group. For example, to form an 8-port trunk select all eight ports
from port group 0 or port group 1. You cannot use ports from each port group for the trunk.
•
You can use from 1 to 8 ports in a port group to form a trunk.
•
All ports in a trunk must be running at the same speed.
•
All ports in a trunk must be configured for the same distance.
•
All ports in a trunk must have the same QoS and FEC settings.
•
Trunk groups must be created between Brocade switches (or Brocade adapters in the case of F_Port trunking).
Brocade trunking is proprietary and is not supported on third-party switches.
•
There must be a direct connection between participating switches.

Extension Blade Overview

The Brocade SX6 Extension blade is intended as an extension platform to support Fibre Channel (FC), FICON, and IP-
based storage data flows. Brocade Extension enables you to use the existing IP wide area network (WAN) infrastructure
to connect Fibre Channel and IP fabrics. Brocade Extension supports applications such as remote data replication (RDR),
centralized backup, and data migration over very long distances that are impractical or very costly using native Fibre
Channel or IP connections. Extension tunnels, built on a physical connection between two extension switches or blades,
allow Fibre Channel and IP I/O to pass through the IP WAN. The SX6 Extension blade can connect with an SX6 blade in
another Brocade X6 or X7 Director or with a Brocade 7840 Extension Switch.
You can mix port and extension blades in device slots 3–6 and 9–12, but CR32-8 blades must be installed in slots 7 and
8. You can install a maximum of four SX6 blades in the device.
The SX6 blade has the following external ports:
•
Sixteen Fibre Channel (FC) SFP+ ports that support Fibre Channel Routing Services and connection to FC devices for
the Brocade Extension feature. These ports support 32G transceivers operating at 8G, 16G, or 32G, 16G transceivers
operating at 4G, 8G, or 16G, and 10G transceivers operating at fixed 10G. FC ports can auto-negotiate speeds with
connecting ports.
•
10GbE or 1GbE SFP+ ports and two 40GbE QSFP ports. These ports allow the connection of blades to IP WANs
and allow Fibre Channel and IP I/O to pass through the IP WAN using extension tunnels. The 10GbE or 1GbE ports
Broadcom
Brocade X6-8 Director
Hardware Installation Guide
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