Fibre Channel Features - IBM Flex System FC5024D User Manual

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Fibre Channel features

The IBM Flex System FC5024D 4-Port 16Gb FC Adapter supports the following Fibre Channel
features for enhanced performance and connectivity in the SAN. For more information on these
features, refer to the Brocade Adapters Installation and Reference Manual.
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Introduction
UCM compliance
Brocade adapters are compliant with IBM Unified Configuration Manager (UCM).
Windows Management Implementation (WMI).
Windows Server 2008, RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLES), and
VMware ESX Server.
Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE), a minimal operating system with limited services
for Windows Server or Windows Vista used for unattended deployment of workstations and
servers. WinPE is supported by Brocade Windows 2008 storage drivers
Windows Server Core, a minimal server option for Windows Server 2008 operating systems that
provides a low-maintenance server environment with limited functionality. All configuration and
maintenance is done through command line interface windows or by connecting to a system
remotely through a management application.
Windows 7. Windows 7 x86 is supported by Windows 2008 x86 drivers. Windows 7 x64 is
supported by Windows 2008 R2 X64 drivers.
Windows Server 2012.
Over 500,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) per port for maximum I/O transfer rates.
Up to 1,600 Mbps throughput per port full duplex.
Management APIs for integration with a Management application, such as Network Advisor, and
other management frameworks.
BB Credit Recovery. Buffer-to-buffer credit primitives (R_RDY and VC_RDY) exchanged at the
link level can get corrupted and become unrecognizable at the receivers. This will lead to depletion
of BB Credits that were exchanged between the adapter and switch ports during fabric login
(FLOGI). Similarly, if the start of frame gets corrupted, the receiving port will not send the
corresponding R_RDY to the port at the other end of the link and will result in loss of credit for that
port. This will cause the ports to operate with few buffer credits and impact throughput until a link
reset or link offline event. To avoid this problem, the credit loss recovery feature enables ports to
recover the lost credits.
BCU commands and HCM options are available to enable and disable the feature. When enabling
BB Credit Recovery, you provide a buffer-to-buffer state change number (BB_SCN), which
specifies the number of frames to send and R_RDYs to return from the receiver before the receiver
will detect lost credits and initiate credit recovery.
BCU commands are also available to query for such information as credit recovery state (offline or
online) and offline reasons. In addition, commands are available to display port statistics for
BB_Credit recovery, credit recovery frames lost, R_RDYs lost, and link resets. Refer to the
Brocade Adapters Administrator's Guide for details.
Following are feature limitations:
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The feature is also only supported on Brocade switches running Fabric OS 7.1 and later.
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The feature only works at the maximum supported speed of the port.
Features and specifications
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