B Implementing An Interoperable Fabric; Overview; Understanding Brocade And Mcdata Interoperability; Determining Mcdata-Aware Features - HP A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base Administrator's Manual

B Implementing an interoperable fabric
This appendix provides information on setting up a heterogeneous fabric that includes Fabric OS switches
and McDATA Enterprise OS switches (M-EOS).
IMPORTANT:
with your sales representative or
In Fabric OS 6.0, Brocade supports interoperability on new platforms, zone activation, FCR SANtegrity,
Fabric OS SANtegrity, and Coordinated Hot Code Load.
Prior to this release, you could configure switches for interoperability mode (Open Fabric 1.0), by enabling
interopmode 1, which supported non-Brocade switches, for example CISCO and QLogic. This release
introduces McDATA Open Fabric mode, interopmode 3, which replaces interopmode 1. You can configure
interoperability between McDATA and Brocade switches, but interoperability on non-Brocade switches is
no longer supported.
McDATA Open Fabric mode is intended specifically for adding Fabric OS-based products into M-EOS
fabrics that are already using Open Fabric mode. Fabrics containing only Fabric OS switches in Open
Fabric mode are not supported.
McDATA switch firmware must run version 9.6.2 to support interoperability. All Fabric OS switches must run
version 6.0.

Overview

Changing the interop mode is no longer a toggle operation. The interopmode command allows
changing between McDATA Fabric, McDATA Open Fabric, and back to Brocade Native mode. You must
issue the interopmode command on all Fabric OS switches in the fabric and all switches must have the
same mode set. All fabric mode changes can only be performed when the switch is disabled or offline and
any platform management functions must be disabled. You no longer have to perform a reboot, each
Fabric OS switch automatically reboots when you change modes.
Fabric OS 6.0 supports changing between interop modes using the following Interopmode command
options:
Interopmode 2 for McDATA Fabric mode supports M-EOS switches v9.6.2 and later running in
McDATA Fabric mode.
Interopmode 3 for McDATA Open Fabric mode supports M-EOS switches v9.6.2 and higher
running in Open Fabric mode.
Interopmode 0 for Brocade Native mode, which supports all stand alone Brocade fabrics, but no
interoperability support.

Understanding Brocade and McDATA interoperability

Determining McDATA-aware features

There are two ways that Fabric OS 6.0 determines which features are available to the switch. If a feature is
McDATA-aware (that is, aware of the McDATA environment), some actions may be possible fabric-wide. If
a feature is McDATA-unaware, some actions cannot be taken.
Features that are available fabric-wide in a McDATA-aware environment are shown in
Table 104

McDATA-aware features

Feature
Coordinated Hot Code Load
FCR E_Port SANtegrity
These features are not supported at the time of the release of this document. Please check
http://www.hp.com
Behavior
Supported McDATA Open Fabric mode and McDATA Fabric
mode.
Supported only in McDATA Fabric mode.
regarding HP support of the interoperability features.
Fabric OS 6.x administrator guide 477
Table 104.