Deployment Guide

66 Dell Networking FC Flex IOM: Deployment of FCoE with Dell FC Flex IOM, Brocade FC switches,
and Dell Compellent Storage Array
Deployment/Configuration Guide
Figure 58 Dell IOA w/ FC Flex IOM acting as a NPIV Proxy Gateway and allowing for a converged
infrastructure
By simply inserting the Dell IOA blade switch w/ FC Flex IOM into the Dell M1000e chassis, you can see
below that the end-node is able to log into the SAN A fabric without any configuration needed. In
default standalone mode, the Dell PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator requires zero-touch configuration in
terms of setting up the environment for FCoE. By default it is already preconfigured for NPIV Proxy
Gateway when the FC Flex IO Module is detected. Also by default, all uplink ports are lagged together
via LACP in port-channel 128. In figure 58 above, since we are using the two included 40 GbE ports on
each IOA up to the S6000s. Ports tengigabitethernet 0/33 – tengigabitethernet 0/40 are the ports
that are being utilized to connect to the S6000 via 40 GbE cable. In this example 40 GbE active fiber
DACs are used but 40 GbE copper DACs could also have been used. OM3 fiber and 8G FC optics are
used to connect the FC ports from the FC Flex IOM to the FC ports on the Brocade FC switches.
The IO Aggregator is meant to be used for ease of deployment. All interfaces are tagged on all VLANs
and untagged on the default VLAN. For this reason, since all DCB and FCoE configuration is also
applied by default, there is no configuration needed on the Dell IOA. If it is desired to change the VLAN
settings, the Chassis Management Controller (CMC) GUI can be employed.
It should be noted that the IOA has uplink failure detection by default, so if the upstream connectivity is
down, the IOA automatically disables the port connecting to the server – tengigabitethernet 0/4 in this
case. This is done for proper failover upon upstream connectivity failure. Because of all the