Important Notes; Brocade Network Advisor Compatibility; Dcfm Compatibility - Brocade Communications Systems Brocade 300 Release Notes

Important Notes

This section contains information that you should consider before you use this Fabric OS release.

Brocade Network Advisor Compatibility

Brocade® Network Advisor provides the industry's first unified network management solution for data, storage,
and converged networks. It supports Fibre Channel Storage Area Networks (SANs), Fibre Channel over Ethernet
(FCoE) networks, Layer 2/3 IP switching and routing networks, wireless networks, application delivery
networks, and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks. In addition, Brocade Network Advisor supports
comprehensive lifecycle management capabilities across different networks through a seamless and unified
user experience. It is the next-generation successor product to legacy Brocade management products (Brocade
Data Center Fabric Manager (DCFM), Brocade Fabric Manager (FM) and Brocade Enterprise Fabric Connectivity
Manager (EFCM)).
Brocade Network Advisor is available with flexible packaging and licensing options for a wide range of network
deployments and for future network expansion. Brocade Network Advisor 12.0.0 is available in

SAN-only edition

IP-only edition

SAN+IP edition.
For SAN Management, Network Advisor 12.0 is available in three editions:

Network Advisor Professional: a fabric management application that is ideally suited for small-size
businesses that need a lightweight management product to manage their smaller fabrics. It manages
one FOS fabric at a time and up to 1,000 switch ports. It provides support for Brocade FC switches,
Brocade HBAs / CNAs, and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) switches.

Network Advisor Professional Plus: a SAN management application designed for medium-size
businesses or departmental SANs for managing up to thirty-six physical or virtual fabrics (FOS) and up
to 2,560 switch ports. It supports Brocade backbone and director products (DCX 8510-4/DCX-4S,
48Ks, etc.), FC switches, Fibre Channel Over IP (FCIP) switches, Fibre Channel Routing (FCR) switches/
Integrated Routing (IR) capabilities, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) / DCB switches, and Brocade
HBAs / CNAs.

Network Advisor Enterprise: a management application designed for enterprise-class SANs for
managing up to thirty-six physical or virtual fabrics and up to 9,000 switch ports. Network Advisor SAN
Enterprise supports all the hardware platforms and features that Network Advisor Professional Plus
supports, and adds support for the Brocade DCX Backbone (DCX 8510-8/DCX) and Fiber Connectivity
(FICON) capabilities.
More details about Network Advisor's new enhancements can be found in the Network Advisor 12.0 Release
Notes, Network Advisor 12.0 User Guide, and Network Advisor 12.0 Installation, Migration, & Transition
Guides.
Note:
Brocade Network Advisor 12.0 is required to manage switches running FOS 7.1 or later, and also to manage
the Brocade 6520 platform.

DCFM Compatibility

DCFM is not qualified with and does not support the management of switches operating with FOS v7.0 and
later firmware versions. You must first upgrade DCFM to Network Advisor 12.0 if you are planning to upgrade
devices to FOS v7.1.0 or later.
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