F_Port Trunking Considerations; F_Port Masterless Trunking Considerations - HP A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base Administrator's Manual

F_Port trunking considerations

Table 81

F_Port masterless trunking considerations

Category
Area assignment
Authentication
Management Server
Trunk area
PWWN
Downgrade
Upgrade
HA Sync
Port Types
Default Area
Description
You statically assign the area within the trunk group on the
edge switch. That group is the F_Port masterless trunk.
The static trunk area you assign must fall within the ASIC's
trunk group of the switch or blade starting from port 0.
The static trunk area you assign must be one of the port's
default areas of the trunk group.
Authentication occurs only on the F_Port trunk master port
and only once per the entire trunk. This behavior is same as
E_Port trunk master authentication. Because only one port in
the trunk does FLOGI to the switch, and authentication
follows FLOGI on that port, only that port displays the
authentication details when you issue the portShow
command.
Note: Switches in Access Gateway mode do not perform
authentication.
Registered Node ID (RNID), Link Incident Record Registration
(LIRR), and (QSA) Query Security Attributes ELS's are not
supported on F-Port trunks.
The port must be disabled before assigning a Trunk Area on
the edge switch to the port or removing a Trunk Area from a
trunk group.
You cannot assign a Trunk Area to ports if the standby-CP is
running a firmware version earlier than Fabric OS 6.1.x.
The entire Trunk Area trunk group share the same Port WWN
within the trunk group. The PWWN is the same across the
F_Port trunk that will have 0x2f or 0x25 as the first byte of
the PWWN. The TA is part of the PWWN in the format listed
in Table 82 on page 379.
You can have trunking on, but you must disable the trunk
ports before performing a firmware downgrade.
Note: Removing a Trunk Area on ports running traffic is
disruptive because you must disable the port to disable the
Trunk Area on the port. Use caution before assigning a Trunk
Area if you need to downgrade to a firmware earlier than
Fabric OS 6.1.x.
There are no limitations on upgrading to Fabric OS 6.1.x if
the F_Port is present on switch. Upgrading is not disruptive.
If you plug in a standby-CP with a firmware earlier than
Fabric OS 6.1.x and a Trunk Area is present on the switch,
the CP blades will become out of sync.
Only F_Port trunk ports are allowed on a Trunk Area port for
Fabric OS 6.1.x. All other port types that include F/FL/E/EX
are persistently disabled in Fabric OS 6.1.x.
Port X is a port that has its Default Area the same as its Trunk
Area. The only time you can remove port X from the trunk
group is if the entire trunk group has the Trunk Area disabled.
Fabric OS 6.1.x administrator guide 377