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

42 Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide
53-1002148-02
Ports
3
Swapping port area IDs
If a device that uses port binding is connected to a port that fails, you can use port swapping to
make another physical port use the same PID as the failed port. The device can then be plugged
into the new port without the need to reboot the device.
Use the following procedure to swap the port area IDs of two physical switch ports. In order to swap
port area IDs, the port swap feature must be enabled, and both switch ports must be disabled. The
swapped area IDs for the two ports remain persistent across reboots, power cycles, and failovers.
Brocade DCX, DCX-4S, DCX 8510-8, and DCX 8510-4 platforms only: You can swap only ports 0
through 15 on the FC8-48 port blades. You cannot swap ports 16 through 47.
1. Connect to the switch and log in using an account with admin permissions.
2. Enable the portSwapEnable command to enable the feature.
3. Enter the portDisable command on each of the source and destination ports to be swapped.
switch:admin>portdisable 1
ecp:admin>portdisable 1/2
4. Enter the portSwap command.
switch:admin>portswap 1 2
ecp:admin>portswap 1/1 2/2
5. Enter the portSwapShow command to verify that the port area IDs have been swapped.
A table shows the physical port numbers and the logical area IDs for any swapped ports.
6. Enter the portSwapDisable command to disable the port swap feature.
Port activation and deactivation
By default, all licensed ports are enabled. You can disable and re-enable them as necessary. Ports
that you activate with the Ports on Demand license must be enabled explicitly, as described in
“Ports on Demand” on page 386.
If ports are persistently disabled and you use the portEnable command to enable a disabled port,
the port will revert to being disabled after a power cycle or a switch reboot. To ensure the port
remains enabled, use the portCfgPersistentEnable command as instructed below.
CAUTION
The fabric will be reconfigured if the port you are enabling or disabling is connected to another
switch.
The switch with a port that has been disabled will be segmented from the fabric and all traffic
flowing between it and the fabric will be lost.