Port Cost Considerations; Setting A Proxy Pid; Matching Fabric Parameters - HP A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base Administrator's Manual

Port cost considerations

The router port cost has the following considerations:
• Router port sets are defined as follows:
• 0-7 and FCIP Tunnel 16-23
• 8- 1 5 and FCIP Tunnel 24-31
More than two router port sets can exist in a 4/256 SAN Director or DC Director with two FR4- 1 8i blades.
• The router port cost does not help distinguish one IFL (or EX_ and VEX_Port link) from another, if all the
IFLs are connected to the same port set. Therefore, if you connect IFL1 and IFL2 to the same edge fabric
in port set 0–7 and then configure them to different router port costs, traffic is still balanced across all
the IFLs in the same port set.
• Use proper SAN design guidelines to connect the IFLs to different port sets for effective router port cost
use. For example, if both a low-speed VEX_Port and a high-speed EX_Port are going to the same edge
fabric, connect the lower router cost IFLs to a separate port group (for example ports 0–7) than the
higher router cost IFLs (for example ports 8–15). For VEX_Ports, you would use ports in the range of
16-23 or 24-31.
You can connect multiple EX_Ports or VEX_Ports to the same edge fabric. The EX_Ports can all be on the
same 400 MP Router or 4/256 SAN Director or DC Director with an FR4- 1 8i blade, or they can be on
multiple routers. Multiple EX_Ports create multiple paths for frame routing. Multiple paths can be used in
two different, but compatible, ways:
• Failing over from one path to another.
• Using multiple paths in parallel to increase effective data transmission rates.
EX_Ports and VEX_Ports, when connected, are assigned different router port costs and traffic will flow only
through the EX_Ports. Routing failover is automatic, but it can result in frames arriving out of order when
frames take different routes. The 400 MP Router and 4/256 SAN Director or DC Director with an FR4- 1 8i
blade can force in-order delivery, although frame delivery is delayed immediately after the path failover.
Source EX_Ports can balance loads across multiple destination EX_Ports attached to the same edge fabric
using exchange IDs from the routed frames as keys to distribute the traffic.

Setting a proxy PID

When a 400 MP Router and 4/256 SAN Director or DC Director with an FR4- 1 8i blade is first configured,
the PIDs for the proxy devices are automatically assigned. Proxy PIDs (as well as phantom domain IDs)
persist across reboots.
The most common situation in which you would set a proxy PID is when you replace a switch. If you
replace the switch and want to continue using the old PID assignments, you can configure it to do so; this
value remains in the system even if the blade is replaced. To minimize disruption to the edge fabrics, set
the proxy PIDs to the same values used with the old hardware.
The fcrProxyConfig command displays or sets the persistent configuration of proxy devices. Used with
the -s slot option, it can also influence the assignment of the xlate domain port number (which is used to
determine the Area_ID field of the PID) and the Port_ID field. Like the PIDs in a fabric, a proxy PID must be
unique. If the slot argument results in a duplicate PID, it will be ignored. Proxy PIDs are automatically
assigned to devices imported into a fabric, starting at f001. For Proxy IDs projected to a McDATA edge
fabric in McDATA fabric mode, use valid ALPAs (lower 8 bits). See the fcrProxyConfig command in
the Fabric OS Command Reference for more details.
Use the fcrXlateConfig command to display or assign a preferred domain ID to a translate domain.
See the Fabric OS Command Reference for more details.

Matching fabric parameters

By default, EX_Ports and VEX_Ports detect, autonegotiate, and configure the fabric parameters without user
intervention.
You can optionally configure these parameters manually. To change the fabric parameters on a switch in
the edge fabric, execute the configure command. To change the fabric parameters of an EX_Port on the
228 Using the FC-FC routing service