Fabric OS Encryption Administrator's Guide

Fabric OS Encryption Administrator’s Guide 5

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The FS8-18 blade

The FS8-18 blade provides the same features and functionality as the encryption switch. The

FS8-18 blade installs on the Brocade DCX and DCX-4S. Four FS8-18 blades may be installed in a

single DCX or DCX-4S.

FIPS mode

Both the BES and the FS8-18 blade always boot up in FIPS mode, which cannot be disabled. In this

mode, only FIPS-compliant algorithms are allowed.

Performance licensing

Encryption processing power is scalable, and may be increased by purchasing and installing an

encryption performance license. The base unit Brocade Encryption Switch and FS8-18 Encryption

Blade have a standard capacity of 48 Gbps of encryption processing power. Additional encryption

processing power can be added for disk I/O by purchasing and installing an Advanced Disk

Encryption Performance Upgrade license. When the performance upgrade license is applied,

encryption processing power of up to 96 Gbps is available for disk encryption. Note that when the

license is applied to a DCX or DCX-4S chassis, it applies to all FS8-18 blades installed on that

chassis.

Adding a license

The encryption performance licenses are added just like any other Fabric OS feature license. After

the license is added, the encryption switch, DCX, or DCX-4S with encryption blades installed must

be rebooted for the license to take effect. See the Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide for information

about obtaining and adding licenses.

Licensing best practices

Licenses installed on the switches and blades must have identical performance numbers when

used together in high availability (HA) clusters or data encryption key (DEK) clusters.