Access Gateway Routing Requirements With Cisco Fabrics; Enabling Npiv On A Cisco Switch - Brocade Communications Systems A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base Administrator's Manual

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Connectivity to Cisco Fabrics
In this case, you must configure the Cisco switch using the Cisco provided procedures to ensure
interoperability with Access Gateway.
If you are using Emulex HBAs or any other HBAs that are not based on QLogic FC ASIC technology,
ensure that N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) is enabled on the Cisco switch and that the switch is
running SAN-OS 3.0 (1) or SAN-OS 3.1 (1) or later. By default, NPIV is enabled per switch and not
per port.

Access Gateway routing requirements with Cisco fabrics

The routing mechanism that switches in AG mode and the work around from Cisco to enable Cisco
MDS switches to interoperate with certain QLogic-based devices behind the AG switch is based on
the Cisco Company ID list.
Expanding the 8-bit ALPA routing in AG to 16-bit routing, which uses both the Area and the ALPA
fields, allows AG to handle PIDs with lower 8 bits. In ALPA routing mode, Cisco switches assign PIDs
to NPIV devices that differ in the lower 16 bits and assign PIDs for NPIV logins in the format of
ddXXXX. Fabric OS switches assigns PIDs in the format of ddaaXX. You can configure these
switches to route frames to a destination port based on the lower 16 bits in the PID.
Because switches in AG mode use the lower 8 bits of the FCID (that is, the ALPA/Port_ID field) to
route the frames between its F_Ports (connected to servers) and N_Ports (connected to the fabric)
Access Gateway cannot accept:
•
•

Enabling NPIV on a Cisco switch

1. Log in as admin on the Cisco MDS switch.
2. Enter the show version command to determine that you are using the correct SAN-OS version
3. Enter the following commands to enable NPIV:
4. Press Ctrl-Z to exit.
5. Enter the following commands to save the MDS switch connection:
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Two FCIDs with the same lower 8 bits on the same N_Port (for example, 0xaabb02 and
0xccdd02)
A "00" in the ALPA/Port_ID field of the FCID, which is returned for F_Ports logins (that is, server
HBA logins behind AG, also known as FDISC logins. If either of these two situations is detected,
the switch in AG mode persistently disables the server ports with the reason code "Duplicate
ALPA detected."
and to see if NPIV is enabled on the switch.
conf t
enable npiv
copy run start
Your Cisco switch is now ready to connect to a switch in Access Gateway mode.
Access Gateway Administrator's Guide
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