Addendum

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Understanding and Working of the FC
Flex IO Modules
This chapter provides a generic, broad-level description of the operations and functionality of the Fiber
Channel (FC) Flex IO module, and contains the following sections:
• FC Flex IO Modules Overview
• FC Flex IO Module Capabilities and Operations
• Guidelines for Working with FC Flex IO Modules
• Processing of Data Traffic
• Installing and Configuring the Switch
• Interconnectivity of FC Flex IO Modules with Cisco MDS Switches
FC Flex IO Modules Overview
The Fibre Channel (FC) Flex IO module is supported on Dell Networking MXL 10/40GbE Switch and Dell
PowerEdge IO Aggregator (IOA). The MXL and IOA switch installed with the FC Flex IO module functions
as a top-of-rack edge switch that supports converged enhanced ethernet (CEE) traffic — Fibre channel
over Ethernet (FCoE) for storage, inter-process communication (IPC) for servers, and Ethernet local area
network (LAN) (IP cloud) for data — as well as FC links to one or more storage area network (SAN) fabrics.
Although the MXL 10/40GbE Switch and the I/O Aggregator can act as a FIP snooping bridge (FSB) to
provide FCoE transit switch capabilities, the salient and significant advantage of deploying the FC Flex IO
module is to enable more streamlined and cohesive FCoE N-port identifier virtualization (NPIV) proxy
gateway functionalities. The NPIV proxy gateway (NPG) provides FCoE-FC bridging behavior.
The FC Flex IO module offers a rich, comprehensive set of FCoE functionalities on the M1000e chassis by
splitting the Ethernet and Fibre Channel (FC) traffic at the edge of the chassis. The FC switches that are
connected directly to the FC Flex IO module provide Fibre Channel capabilities because the FC Flex IO
module does not support full fabric functionalities. With the separation of Ethernet and FC packets
performed at the edge of the chassis itself, you can use the MXL 10/40GBE Switch or the Aggregator that
contains an FC Flex IO module to connect to a SAN environment without the need for a separate ToR
switch to operate as NPIV proxy gateways. The MXL 10/40GBE Switch or the Aggregator can function in
NPIV proxy gateway mode when an FC Flex IO module is present or in the FIP snooping bridge (FSB)
mode when all the ports are Ethernet ports.
The FC Flex IO module uses the same baseboard hardware of the MXL 10/40GBE Switch or the
Aggregator and the M1000 chassis. You can insert the FC Flex IO module into any of the optional module
slots of the MXL 10/40GBE Switch and it provides four FC ports per module. If you insert only one FC Flex
IO module, four ports are supported; if you insert two FC Flex IO modules, eight ports are supported.
By installing an FC Flex IO module, you can enable the MXL 10/40GbE Switch and I/O Aggregator to
directly connect to an existing FC SAN network. The FC Flex IO module uses the existing slots on the MXL
10/40GbE Switch and I/O Aggregator and provides four or eight FC ports up to speed of 8 GbE per
second. You can connect all of the FC ports to the same FC SAN fabric to yield FC bandwidth of up to 64
Gb. It is possible to connect some of the ports to a different FC SAN fabric to provide access to multiple
fabric devices.
Understanding and Working of the FC Flex IO Modules
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