Logical Switch Overview; Default Logical Switch - Brocade Communications Systems 1606 Administrator's Manual

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Logical switch overview

This chapter describes the logical switch and logical fabric features. For information about device
sharing with Virtual Fabrics, see
The following platforms are Virtual Fabrics-capable:
•
•
•
•
On the Brocade VA-40FC, Virtual Fabrics is supported only in Native mode
For additional information about supported switches and port types, see
Virtual Fabrics"
Virtual Fabrics and Admin Domains are mutually exclusive and are not supported at the same time
on a switch.
NOTE
A note on terminology: Virtual Fabrics is the name of the feature. A logical fabric is a type of fabric
that you can create using the Virtual Fabrics feature.

Logical switch overview

Traditionally, each switch and all the ports in the switch act as a single Fibre Channel switch (FC
switch) that participates in a single fabric. The logical switch feature allows you to divide a physical
chassis into multiple fabric elements. Each of these fabric elements is referred to as a logical
switch. Each logical switch functions as an independent self-contained FC switch.
NOTE
Each chassis can have multiple logical switches.

Default logical switch

To use the Virtual Fabrics features, you must first enable Virtual Fabrics on the switch.
page 211 shows a switch before and after enabling Virtual Fabrics. The switch must be Virtual
Fabrics-capable (Brocade DCX, DCX-4S, 5300, 5100, or VA-40FC). Enabling Virtual Fabrics creates
a single logical switch in the physical chassis. This logical switch is called the default logical switch,
and it initially contains all of the ports in the physical chassis. In this example, the switch has 10
ports, labeled P0 through P9.
210
Brocade DCX and DCX-4S
Brocade 5300
Brocade 5100
Brocade VA-40FC
on page 220.
"FC-FC Routing and Virtual Fabrics" on page 492.
"Supported platforms for
Figure 20
Fabric OS Administrator's Guide
53-1001763-01
on