HP StorageWorks Multi-protocol Router XPath OS 7.4.1f release notes (5697-0243, January 2010)

DescriptionIssue
The MP Router uses XPP as the transport layer for FCIP transmission. When a
firewall is in the path of the FCIP tunnel, the firewall must be configured to
allow protocol type 206 in the IP header. The purpose of this protocol type is
to establish a connection and enable the FCIP traffic that traverses the firewall.
FCIP and firewalls
The FCIP selective acknowledgement feature was added in a previous version
of firmware.
This feature improves FCIP performance in conditions with high latency and
packet loss.
To ensure this feature is available, verify that MP Routers on both sides of the
link are using 7.4.0 version firmware.
If one side of the link is running firmware that does not support this feature,
the link is not established and switchShow displays incompatible
firmware for that VE_PORT.
FCIP link
Available Bandwidth Parameter. Previous releases of FCIP demonstrated
performance degradation and intermittent ISL failure if the IP network's available
bandwidth for the ISL was restricted to less than 400 Mb/s.
This release includes a new parameter for the portCfgFcip CLI command.
The parameter is -b i, where i is the available ISL bandwidth in Mb/s,
rounded down to the closest integer value.
Due to the various link-encapsulation methods, header sizes, and so forth, it
might be difficult to determine the exact available bandwidth for a particular
link. HP recommends setting the bandwidth parameter to 96% of the advertised
link bandwidth (for example, -b 96 for a 100 Mb/s link).
Additional tuning of the bandwidth parameter might be necessary for optimal
throughput.
Jumbo Frame Support. Previous releases of FCIP-segmented FCIP-encapsulated
FC frames into two Ethernet frames, if the encapsulated FC frame would exceed
standard Ethernet maximum frame size. To improve ISL throughput and
bandwidth efficiency for an FCIP ISL capable of supporting jumbo Ethernet
frames, this release includes a new portCfgFcip CLI command. The
parameter is -j n.
The n is set to 1 to enable jumbo frame transmission and 2 to disable jumbo
frame transmission. This option is disabled by default.
NOTE:
The system does not attempt to verify that the link can support jumbo
frames (no path MTU discovery exists). If configured to enable jumbo
frame support on a network that does not support jumbo Ethernet frames
end-to-end, the link will fail if a 2 KB FC frame is sent across the FCIP
ISL.
Wide area network services
and FCIP
Table 7 iSCSI Gateway service
DescriptionIssue
Releasing the IP address of a Multiprotocol Router Gigabit Ethernet port requires
setting the IP address of the port to 0.0.0.0. For example:
portcfgGbE 15 -i 0.0.0.0
Upon releasing the IP address, the address can be used by other ports.
Releasing the IP address for a
GbE port
Multi-protocol Router XPath OS 7.4.1f 9