Access Gateway Port Types - Brocade Communications Systems A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base Administrator's Manual

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Access Gateway port types

The following figure compares a configuration that connects eight hosts to the fabric using Brocade
Access Gateway to the same configuration with standard fabric switches.
Figure 1-1
The difference between the fabric switch (Fabric OS native mode) and Brocade Access Gateway is as
follows:
•
The Fabric OS switch is a part of the fabric; it requires two through four times as many physical
ports, consumes fabric resources, and can connect to a Brocade-based fabric only.
•
Brocade Access Gateway is outside the fabric; it reduces the number of switches on the fabric and
the number of required physical ports. You can connect Brocade Access Gateway to either a
Brocade-, Cisco-, or McDATA-based fabric.
Note
When using a Brocade blade server embedded switch in Access Gateway mode, most switch features are
no longer applicable. These features include Admin Domains, Advanced Performance Monitoring,
direct connection to SAN target devices, Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop support, Fabric Manager,
FICON, IP over FC, ISL Trunking, Extended Fabrics, Management Services, Name Services (SNS),
port mirroring, Secure Fabric OS, SMI-S, and Zoning. These switch features are available in the default
switch mode of operation.
Access Gateway port types
Brocade Access Gateway differs from a typical fabric switch because it connects to the fabric using
node ports (N_Ports). Typically fabric switches connect to the enterprise fabric using ISL (InterSwitch
Link) ports, such as an E_Port.
The following defines the Fibre Channel (FC) port terms used in this manual:
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Access Gateway and fabric switch comparison
F_Port, fabric port. A switch port that connects a host, HBA, or storage device to the SAN.
N_Port, node port. A host, HBA, or storage device port that connects to the F_Port of the
fabric switch.
Access Gateway Administrator's Guide
Publication Number: 53-1000430-01