Configuring And Monitoring Fcip Tunneling; About Fcip Tunneling - HP AE370A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch 4/12 Administrator's Manual

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Configuring and monitoring FCIP tunneling

The Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) Tunneling Service is an optional feature that enables you to use Fibre
Channel "tunnels" to connect SANs over IP-based networks. An FCIP tunnel transports data between a pair
of Fibre Channel switches. You can have more than one TCP connection between the pair of Fibre Channel
switches. However, from the Fibre Channel fabric point of view, the FCIP tunnel is just a connection
between switches, and all the IP network and protocols remain invisible.
Supported platforms for FCIP
Fabric OS supports FCIP ISLs between two SilkWorm switches (SilkWorm 7500 or SilkWorm 48000 with
an FR4- 1 8i blade).
The GbE ports on the FC4- 1 6IP do not support FCIP tunneling.
NOTE: The Fabric OS 5.2.0 FCIP Tunneling Service is not compatible with the XPath FCIP service; nor is
it compatible with any other vendor's implementation.

About FCIP tunneling

FCIP tunneling enables you to connect fabrics over an IP connection. Depending on the port type you
select, the fabrics can merge or remain separate, while sharing devices. This enables you, for example, to
connect one central office to different branch offices without having to merge the fabrics.
The port types for FCIP tunneling are either VE_Port or VEX_Port. An FCIP tunnel using VE_Ports will merge
the two fabrics, and an FCIP tunnel using a VEX_Port will not merge the fabrics. A VEX_Port can only
connect to a VE_Port.
Fibre Channel frame encapsulation on one port and the reconstruction of Fibre Channel frames on the
other port is transparent to the initiator and target.
Fabric OS supports FCIP ISLs between two supported HP StorageWorks switches (400 MP Router or 4/256
SAN Director with B-Series MP Router blade) or routers.
The tunnel on each GbE port are numbered 0 through 7, and each tunnel corresponds to a virtual GbE
port. For example, tunnel 0 on GbE port 0 corresponds to logical FC port 16; tunnel 1 on GbE port 1
corresponds to logical FC port 25. The GbE physical ports enable you to configure the following tunnels
and corresponding virtual ports:
Table 89 Tunnels and virtual port numbering once configured
Physical ports
ge0
ge1
Tunnels
(portshow fciptunnel
slot/ge)
0 through 7
0 through 7
Virtual ports
(switchshow
16 through 23
(area numbers might be different
depending on the slot chosen for
the B-Series MP Router blade)
24 through 31
(area numbers might be different
depending on the slot chosen for
the B-Series MP Router blade)
Fabric OS 5.2.x administrator guide 367