Upgrade And Downgrade Considerations; Using Front Domain Consolidation - HP AA979A - StorageWorks SAN Switch 2/8V Administrator's Manual

Upgrade and downgrade considerations

The following considerations apply when upgrading to or downgrading from Fabric OS 5.2.x with front
domain consolidation:
• During an upgrade to Fabric OS v5.2 from Fabric OS v5.1:
• The router switch is changed from one front domain per EX_Port to a shared front domain for the
EX_Ports that are connected to the same edge fabric.
• One port per edge fabric remains online and connected to the edge fabric. The other ports
connected to the same edge fabric are reinitialized (port offline and online). The ports share the
front domain of the port that remained online.
• Minimal traffic disruption occurs when you have more than one IFL connection to the edge fabric.
• No traffic disruption should occur in the case of a single IFL to an edge fabric.
• Frame drops can occur as routing changes from multiple ports to one port.
• During a downgrade from Fabric OS v5.2 to a prior Fabric OS version (for example,
Fabric OS v5.1):
• The router switch is changed from a consolidated front domain to multiple front domains and all the
EX_Ports will be reinitialized. This is a disruptive procedure.
• Traffic disruption can occur.

Using front domain consolidation

To support the consolidated front domain feature, existing CLI and API commands are used to manage and
configure the router. Existing CLI commands offer additional options to support the front domain
consolidation feature.
The portCfgExport command has additional options to verify the front domain ID. The
portCfgExport –d option is changed to enforce use of the same front domain ID for the EX_Ports
connected to the same edge fabric. The portCfgExport display results remain the same.
For more information about the portCfgExport -d option, see
and the command details in the Fabric OS Command Reference Manual.
The following example illustrates the use of the portcfgexport command.
switch:admin_06> portcfgexport 2/0
Port 2/0 info
Admin: enabled
State: OK
Pid format: core(N)
Operate mode: Brocade Native
Edge Fabric ID: 16
Front Domain ID: 160
Front WWN: 50:06:06:9e:20:9f:ce:10
Principal Switch: 7
principal WWN: 10:00:00:60:69:c0:05:8a
Fabric Parameters: Auto Negotiate
R_A_TOV: 9000(N)
E_D_TOV: 2000(N)
Edge fabric's primary wwn: N/A
Edge fabric's version stamp: N/A
The fabricShow command shows only one front domain per a router connection. In the following
example fcr_fd_3_32 has two EX_Port connections but one front domain ID.
switch:admin_06> fabricshow
Switch ID
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: fffc01 50:00:51:e3:70:d2:5f:cb
2: fffc02 50:00:51:e3:70:d2:5f:cc
3: fffc03 50:00:51:e3:60:14:0e:20
199: fffcc7 10:00:00:60:69:c0:05:d1
>"mojo__10" The Fabric has 4 switches
Worldwide NameEnet IP Addr FC IP AddrName
0.0.0.00.0.0.0"fcr_xd_1_32"
0.0.0.00.0.0.0"fcr_xd_2_1"
0.0.0.00.0.0.0"fcr_fd_3_32"
10.32.156.33 0.0.0.0
"portCfgExport Options" on page 212
Fabric OS 5.2.x administrator guide 203