Fabric OS Administrator's Guide v7.0.0 (53-1002148-02, June 2011)

Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide 429
53-1002148-02
Requirements for trunk groups
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License requirements for trunking
All types of trunking require the Trunking license. This license must be installed on each switch that
participates in trunking.
ATTENTION
After you add the Trunking license, to enable trunking functionality, you must disable and then
re-enable each port to be used in trunking, or disable and re-enable the switch.
Note the following additional license requirements:
For ICL trunking, each platform forming the ICL connection also requires the ICL license.
For F_Port trunking between a switch and a Brocade HBA, the switch connected to the HBA
also requires the Server Application Optimization (SAO) license.
See Chapter 18, “Administering Licensing,” for information about activating licenses.
Port groups for trunking
For trunk groups to form, several conditions must be met, one of which is that all of the ports in a
trunk group must belong to the same port group. A port group is a group of eight ports, based on
the user port number, such as 0–7, 8–15, 16–23, and up to the number of ports on the switch.
The maximum number of port groups is platform-specific.
Figure 70 shows the port groups for the Brocade 5100.
Ports in a port group are usually contiguous, but might not be. Refer to the hardware reference
manual for your switch for information about which ports can be used in the same port group for
trunking.
FIGURE 70 Trunk group configuration for the Brocade 5100
Requirements for trunk groups
The following requirements apply to all types of trunking:
The Trunking license must be installed on every switch that participates in trunking.
All of the ports in a trunk group must belong to the same port group.
All of the ports in a trunk group must be running at the same speed.
All of the ports in a trunk group must be configured for the same distance.
All of the ports in a trunk group must have the same encryption, compression, QoS, and FEC
settings.
Trunk groups must be between Brocade switches (or Brocade adapters, in the case of F_Port
trunking). Brocade trunking is proprietary and not supported on M-EOS or third-party switches.