Users Guide

Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide 543

53-1002920-02

Chapter

Inter-chassis Links

In this chapter

•Inter-chassis links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

•ICLs for the Brocade DCX 8510 Backbone family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

•ICLs for the Brocade DCX Backbone family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

•Virtual Fabrics considerations for ICLs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

•Supported topologies for ICL connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Inter-chassis links

An inter-chassis link (ICL) is a licensed feature used to interconnect two Brocade DCX or DCX 8510

Backbones. ICL ports in the core blades are used to interconnect the Backbones, potentially

increasing the number of usable ports in the Backbone chassis.

The Brocade Backbones support two types of ICLs:

• The Brocade DCX 8510 Backbone family supports optical ICL QSFPs.

• The Brocade DCX Backbone family supports proprietary copper ICL connectors.

When two Brocade Backbones are interconnected by ICLs, each chassis requires a unique domain

and is managed as a separate switch.

NOTE

You cannot interconnect a Brocade DCX Backbone family chassis to a Brocade DCX 8510 Backbone

family chassis.

The ICL ports appear as regular ports, with some restrictions. All port parameters associated with

ICL ports are static, and all portCfg commands are blocked from changing any of the ICL port

parameters, except for EX_Port and FEC port parameters. The only management associated with

ICL ports and cables is monitoring the status of the LEDs on the ICL ports and any maintenance if

the Attention LED is blinking yellow.

The ICL ports are managed as E_Ports. For the Brocade DCX_8510 Backbone family, you can also

configure EX_Ports on the ICLs. Refer to Chapter 26, “Using FC-FC Routing to Connect Fabrics,” for

instructions.

When you connect two Brocade Backbones, the following features are supported:

• Trunking

• Buffer-to-buffer credit sharing

• QoS