Technical data

Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide Glossary-5
Publication Number: 53-0000518-09
entry fabric The basic Brocade software license that allows one E_Port per switch.
EOF End of frame. A group of ordered sets used to mark the end of a frame.
error As it applies to the Fibre Channel industry, a missing or corrupted frame, timeout, loss of
synchronization, or loss of signal (link errors).
exchange The highest-level Fibre Channel mechanism used for communication between N_Ports. Composed of
one or more related sequences, it can work in either one or both directions.
F
F_BSY Fabric port busy frame. A frame issued by the fabric to indicate that a frame cannot be delivered
because the fabric or destination N_Port is busy.
F_Port Fabric port. A port that is able to transmit under fabric protocol and interface over links. Can be used to
connect an N_Port to a switch. See also “FL_Port”, “Fx_Port”.
F_RJT Fabric port reject frame. A frame issued by the fabric to indicate that delivery of a frame is being
denied, perhaps because a class is not supported, there is an invalid header, or no N_Port is available.
fabric A Fibre Channel network containing two or more switches in addition to hosts and devices. Also
referred to as a “switched fabric.” See also “SAN”, “topology”.
Fabric
Manager
An optionally licensed Brocade software. Fabric Manager is a GUI that allows for fabric-wide
administration and management. Switches can be treated as groups, and actions such as firmware
downloads can be performed simultaneously.
fabric name The unique identifier assigned to a fabric and communicated during login and port discovery.
fabric services Codes that describe the communication to and from any well-known address.
fabric topology The arrangement of switches that form a fabric.
Fabric Watch An optionally licensed Brocade software. Fabric Watch can be accessed through either the command
line or Advanced Web Tools, and it provides the ability to set thresholds for monitoring fabric
conditions.
failover Describes the Brocade SilkWorm 12000 process of one CP blade passing active status to another CP
blade. A failover is nondisruptive.
FAN Fabric address notification. Retains the AL_PA and fabric address when a loop reinitializes, if the
switch supports FAN.
FC-0 Lowest layer of Fibre Channel transport. Represents physical media.
FC-1 Layer of Fibre Channel transport that contains the 8b/10b encoding scheme.
FC-2 Layer of Fibre Channel transport that handles framing and protocol, frame format, sequence/exchange
management, and ordered set usage.