Brocade Fabric OS v6.4.1 Release Notes v1.0 October 7th , 2010 Document History Document Title Summary of Changes Publication Date Brocade Fabric OS v6.4.1 Release Notes v1.
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Contents Quick Look ................................................................................................................................................... 5 Overview ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 New Features & Support ...........................................................................................................................................
Traffic Isolation over FCR....................................................................................................................................... 29 Integrated Routing ................................................................................................................................................... 30 Native Connectivity ................................................................................................................................................. 30 FCAP ...
Quick Look Fabric OS (FOS) v6.4.1 is a maintenance release based on FOS v6.4.0. All hardware platforms and features supported in FOS v6.4.0 are also supported in v6.4.1. This release also contains fixes for many defects including those from the FOS v6.4.0a, b, and c patch releases. In addition to the fixes noted above and listed in the defect tables at the end of this document, FOS v6.4.1 also includes support for several features.
• Support for Class Class 3 frame transmit (Tx) timeout discard counters on 4G platforms (previously 4G platforms only supported receive (Rx) timeout counters, reference Fabric Watch Administrator’s Guide for details on use and configuration). The Bottleneck Detection feature does not need any additional license and is available on all 4G and 8G capable platforms. Optionally Licensed Software Optionally licensed features in Fabric OS v6.4.
are the first components of this license, and are fully available on all 8G platforms. • Integrated Routing — This license allows ports in a DCX, DCX-4S, 5300, 5100, VA-40FC (in switch mode), 7800 or Brocade Encryption Switch to be configured as EX_Ports or VEX_Ports supporting Fibre Channel Routing. This eliminates the need to add an FR4-18i blade or use the 7500 for FCR purposes, and also provides double the bandwidth for each FCR connection (when connected to another 8G-capable port).
• Advanced FICON Acceleration – This licensed feature uses specialized data management techniques and automated intelligence to accelerate FICON tape read and write and IBM Global Mirror data replication operations over distance, while maintaining the integrity of command and acknowledgement sequences. This license is available on the 7800 and the DCX/DCX-4S for the FX824 on an individual slot basis. Some models offer bundles that include 2 or more optionally licensed features.
• Fabric Watch license • Integrated Routing license • Server Application Optimization • Advanced Extension license • Advanced FICON Acceleration license • 10GbE license • FICON Management Server (CUP) license Supported Switches Fabric OS v6.4.1 supports the Brocade 300, 5410/5424/5450/5460/5470/5480/NC-5480, 4100, 4900, 5000, 5100, 5300, VA-40FC, 7500/7500E, 7600, 48000, Brocade Encryption Switch (BES), DCX/DCX-4S, 8000, and the 7800.
Technical Support Contact your switch supplier for hardware, firmware, and software support, including product repairs and part ordering. To expedite your call, have the following information immediately available: 1. General Information • Technical Support contract number, if applicable • Switch model • Switch operating system version • Error numbers and messages received • supportSave command output and associated files o For dual CP platforms running FOS v6.
3. World Wide Name (WWN) When the Virtual Fabric feature is enabled on a switch, each logical switch has a unique switch WWN. Use the wwn command to display the switch WWN. If you cannot use the wwn command because the switch is inoperable, you can get the primary WWN from the same place as the serial number, except for the Brocade DCX/DCX-4S. For the Brocade DCX, access the numbers on the WWN cards by removing the Brocade logo plate at the top of the non-port side.
FOS Migration Considerations This section contains important details to consider before migrating to or from this FOS release. TSBs - Critical Issues to Consider Prior to Installing This FOS Release Technical Support Bulletins (TSBs) are produced to provide detailed information about high priority defects or issues present in FOS releases. The following sections specify all current TSBs that have been identified as being a risk to or resolved with this specific version of Fabric OS.
If there are multiple node EGs (encryption groups) in a fabric, please complete firmwaredownload on one node at a time before downloading on another node. The Brocade 8000 does not support non-disruptive hot code loads (HCL). Upgrading the Brocade 8000 to FOS v6.4 will be disruptive to the IO through the switch. A code load of DCX or DCX-4s with one or more FCOE10-24 blades will disrupt the traffic going through those FCOE10-24 blades.
Important Notes This section contains information that you should consider before you use this Fabric OS release. DCFM Compatibility FOS v6.4 is compatible with Brocade’s Data Center Fabric Manager (DCFM) v10.4 management software. DCFM is a comprehensive SAN management application that enables end-to-end management of Brocade Data Center Fabrics.
To ensure that a configuration is fully supported, always check the appropriate SAN, storage or blade server product support page to verify support of specific code levels on specific switch platforms prior to installing on your switch. Use only FOS versions that are supported by the provider. When using the Virtual Fabrics feature, it is highly recommended that all switches participating in a fabric with a logical switch use the latest firmware available for those switches.
Brocade 7500 and FR4-18i blade v5.1.0 and higher 8 McDATA SANRouters 1620 and 2640 Not Supported Table Notes: All zoning and fabric operations performed in a fabric with products running older versions of FOS should be done via interfaces to products running the latest version of FOS. This is particularly important for Brocade 3XXX series switches that do not support zoning configuration for newer products. 1 2Other M-EOS models may participate in a fabric with FOS v6.
Blade Support Fabric OS v6.4 software is fully qualified and supports the blades for the 48000 platform noted in the following table: 48000 Blade Support Matrix Port blade 16, 32 and 48-port 4Gbit blades (FC4-16, FC4-32, FC4-48), 16, 32 and 48-port 8Gbit blade (FC8-16, FC8-32, FC8-48), and the 6-port 10G FC blade (FC10-6) Supported with any mix and up to 8 of each. No restrictions around intermix. The 48000 must run Fabric OS v6.0 or later to support the FC8-16 port blade and Fabric OS v6.
DCX/DCXDCX/DCX-4S Blade Support Matrix Encryption Blade (FS8-18) Up to a maximum of 4 blades of this type. Extension Blade (FX8-24) Up to a maximum of 4 blades of this type. FCoE/CEE Blade (FCOE10-24) Up to a maximum of 2 blades of this type. Cannot be used in a chassis with other intelligent blades (can only be installed concurrently with FC8-XX and/or FC10-6 blades). Cannot be used in a DCX/DCX-4S chassis with FC8-64 blade in FOS v6.4.
Power Supply Requirements for Blades Blades in 48k and DCX/DCXDCX/DCX-4S Chassis Blades Type of Blade 48K DCX/DCXDCX/DCX-4S DCX/DCXDCX/DCX-4S @200-240 VAC (Redundant configurations) @110 VAC (Redundant configurations) @200-240 VAC (Redundant configurations) Comments redundant configuration with any number of FS8-18 Blades. • For both DCX and DCX-4S with FX8-24 blades, (1+1) 220VAC Power Supplies are required for redundancy.
FOS Features (supported in interopmode 0) IM = Interopmode Adaptive Networking: QoS Adaptive Networking: Ingress Rate Limiting Advanced Performance Monitoring (APM) APM: TopTalkers Admin Domains Secure Fabric OS5 Fabric Watch Ports on Demand (POD) NPIV Timer Server function (NTP) Open E_Port6 Broadcast Zoning FDMI Remote Switch Port Mirroring Extended Fabrics Alias Server Platform Service FCIP (VE_Ports) IPFC (IP over FC) M-EOS ALPA 0x13 configuration VE to VEX Port Integrated Routing9 Domain Offset Support
10. To support Frame Redirection to an edge M-EOS fabric, there must be at least one FOS switch in the edge fabric to configure Frame Redirection Zones. 11. Only Frame Redirection Zones may be configured on FOS platforms and sent to fabrics operating in McDATA Open Fabric Mode (interopmode 3). M-EOS 9.9 is required to support FR Zones in McDATA Open Fabric Mode. Note: FICON Cascaded CUP with M-EOS and FOS qualified only on select platforms.
Other Important Notes and Recommendations Management Server Platform Capability support changes in FOS v6.4 FOS v6.4 no longer automatically enables the Management Server (MS) Platform capability when a switch attempts to join a fabric that has these services enabled. This prevents a FOS v6.4 switch from joining such a fabric, and ISL will be disabled with a RAS log message. To allow a FOS v6.
circuits created using IPIFs on the same 10 GbE port (and no more than 1G per circuit).As a recommended best practice, the VE tunnel shouldn’t be over-subscribed (e.g. 8G FC traffic over 500Mbps tunnel). General guidelines are 2:1 subscription without compression and 4:1 with compression. • Non-disruptive firmware activation will disrupt I/O traffic on FCIP links.
FCoE/CEE (Brocade 8000 and FCOE10-24) • The Brocade 8000 balances the FCoE bandwidth across all six port groups (each port group contains four ports). To get optimum performance for FCoE traffic it is recommended that the user distribute server CNA connections across these six port groups. • Hot plugging a CP with firmware level less than FOS v6.3.0 into a DCX or DCX-4S with an active FCOE10-24 blade will result in the new standby CP not coming up.
• HA Failover of CP blades in DCX or DCS-4s will also result in disruption of traffic through the FCOE10-24 blades. • Connecting a Brocade 8000 to an FCR-capable switch with fcrbcast config enabled will cause a storm of broadcast traffic resulting in termination of iswitchd. • When rebooting a DCX or DCX-4S with an FCOE10-24 blade, Qlogic CNA and LSAN zoning, the switch will become very unresponsive for a period of time. This is due to the CNA sending excessive MS queries to the switch.
• Disk Encryption Rekey: Configupload/download does not retain the auto rekey value. The first auto rekey after configdownload will occur based on the previously configured key life. The newly configured key life value (as part of configdownload) will be used after the first auto rekey. (Defect 315174) • Disk encryption is not support for IBM iSeries (AS/400) hosts. • 3Par Session/Enclosure LUNs to CTCs are now supported.
BES/FS8-18 Encryption Group. Please refer to the Encryption Admin Guide for configuration information. • The RKM Appliance A1.6, SW v2.7 is supported. The procedure for setting up the RKM Appliance with BES or a DCX/DCX-4S with FS8-18 blades is located in the Encryption Admin Guide. • Support for registering a 2nd RKM Appliance on BES/FS8-18 is blocked.
• When disk and tape CTCs are hosted on the same encryption engine, re-keying cannot be done while tape backup or restore operations are running. Re-keying operations must be scheduled at a time that does not conflict with normal tape I/O operations. The LUNs should not be configured with auto rekey option when single EE has disk and tape CTCs.
• Users who want to utilize Access Gateway’s Device-based mapping feature in the ESX environments are encouraged to refer to the SAN TechNote GA-TN-276-00 for best implementation practices. Please follow these instructions to access this technote: o Log in to http://my.brocade.com o Go to Documentation > Tech Notes. o Look for the Tech Note on Access Gateway Device-Based Mapping in VMware ESX Server.
Integrated Routing • To allow Hot Code Load on a Brocade 5100 when using Integrated Routing, the edge switch connected to the 5100 must be running Fabric OS v6.1 or later code. • Integrated Routing EX_Ports are only supported in the base switch on a switch with VF enabled. • Integrated Routing and TopTalkers (Fabric Mode) are not concurrently supported. To use Integrated Routing, be sure to disable Fabric Mode TopTalkers prior to configuring EX_Ports first.
ASIC port groups are 0-15, 16-31, 32-47, 48-63, and 64-79. The routes will be broken if the port mirror resources are spread across multiple port groups. • Port Mirroring is not supported on the Brocade 7800. 10G Interoperability • 10G interop between FC10-6 and McDATA blades is not supported due to a HW limitation, however the FC10-6 is supported in a chassis running in Interopmode 2 or 3 (FC10-6 to FC10-6 connections only). An FC10-6 blade will not synchronize with a McDATA 10G blade.
• A switch running FOS v6.4 in InteropMode 0 (Brocade Native Mode) cannot connect to an EX_Port on an AP7420. A switch running FOS v6.4 in InteropMode 2 or InteropMode 3 can be connected to EX ports on an AP7420. Extended Fabrics and R_RDY Flow Control Beginning with Fabric OS v5.1, Brocade supported the Extended Fabrics feature in conjunction with R_RDY flow control (R_RDY flow control mode can be enabled via portCfgISLMode command).
• It is recommended that for directors with more than 300 E_Ports, the switch be disabled prior to executing the “switchCfgTrunk” command (used to disable or enable trunking on the switch). • During non-disruptive firmware upgrades, E_Ports in R-RDY mode may cause some frame drops on the E-port links. • The portCfgFillWord command, applicable to 8G-capable ports, has been enhanced with FOS v6.3.1 and v6.4 to provide two new configuration options (Modes 2 and 3).
Defects Closed with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.1 This section lists the defects with Critical, High and Medium Technical Severity closed with a code change as of October 7, 2010 in Fabric OS v6.4.1. Defect ID: DEFECT000319291 Technical Severity: Critical Summary: In a dual Inter-fabric Link (IFL) FCR fabric with LSAN Matrix configured and LSAN binding enabled, disabling the EX_Port for one of the IFLs causes all FCR devices to be removed from the name server database.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.1 Defect ID: DEFECT000269222 Technical Severity: High Summary: 8G switches, and directors with an 8G blade in slot 1, see frame drops in the fabric when there are Ex/VEx ports configured Symptom: If there is an Ex/VEx port configured in the same ASIC chip as a F/E port with EGID 0, hosts cannot see the targets and customer may observe poor performance in the fabric .
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.1 Defect ID: DEFECT000284426 Technical Severity: High Summary: Due to firmware being out of synch with the FPGA version, a Brocade 5470 may get extremely high enc out errors on ports connected to 3rd party HBAs, which may cause link related problems to that HBA. Symptom: High "enc out" errors show up in the counters when running the porterrshow CLI command.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.1 Defect ID: DEFECT000288870 Technical Severity: High Summary: Converged Network Adapter (CNA) cannot login during shut/no shut operation Symptom: CNA is not able to log in to Brocade 8000 / FCOE10-24 blade. Feature: CEE-FCOE Function: FCOE DRIVER Probability: Low Found in Release: FOS6.3.1_cee Where Else Fixed: FOS6.3.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.1 Defect ID: DEFECT000296266 Technical Severity: High Summary: When Auto Port Configuration is enabled on an Access Gateway, switch will lock the port as an N_Port if no FLOGI received within timeout period, then disable it after receiving ELS rejects Symptom: On a Brocade 5480 with the Auto Port Configuration (APC) feature enabled, ports will become locked down as N_Ports if there is no FLOGI sent by an attached device within the timeout period.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.1 Defect ID: DEFECT000301260 Technical Severity: High Summary: Host/Target unable to establish routes across VEX-VE Link Symptom: Due to timing issue, hosts will not be able to access targets for any operational purposes when the NUMBER of FCIP Circuit configuration on one side of the FCIP Tunnel does not match the other side. Feature: FCIP Function: FCIP I/O Probability: Low Found in Release: FOS6.4.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.1 Defect ID: DEFECT000304922 Technical Severity: High Summary: Compact flash failure handling needs enhanced to detect and proactively trigger an hafailover when a bad flash part is detected. Symptom: Compact flash can sometimes fail silently, so customer only sees critical daemon failures, which then trigger a failover. Occasionally no failure is seen at all when this happens, the switch will continue running but does not produce any logs.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.1 Defect ID: DEFECT000274403 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: One directional route problem in fabric prevents local switch communicating to remote switch, causing remote switch to disable local switch without any notification. Symptom: Switch goes to disabled state without any reason logged, and with no user action. Customer sees messages indicating RTWR has reached max retries in RASLOG.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.1 Defect ID: DEFECT000288832 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: On Brocade 5460 platform, firmware version was being set to the FOS default value string, not the proper version string Symptom: Firmware version string always shows FOS default on Brocade 5460, not the correct version through 3rd party SVP. Feature: Embedded Platform Services Function: Sys-Control/Environment Monitor Probability: Low Found in Release: FOS6.3.1 Where Else Fixed: FOS6.3.2, FOS6.3.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.1 Defect ID: DEFECT000298571 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: "(DLS)" label needs to be removed from the "Dynamic Load Sharing" and "Lossless" group boxes that show up in the Webtools Switch Administration Routing Tab Symptom: Confusion due to ambiguous text in Webtools for "Dynamic Load Sharing" and "Lossless" in the Routing Tab group box under Switch Administration. Feature: WebMgmt Function: Switch Admin Probability: Low Found in Release: FOS6.4.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.1 Defect ID: DEFECT000300954 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: ceeturboramtest not running as part of systemverification in FCOE10-24 and Brocade 8000. Symptom: RAM errors are not detected by systemverification diagnostic. Feature: Diagnostics Function: Post Diags Probability: Low Found in Release: FOS6.4.0 Defect ID: DEFECT000301650 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: Spinfab fails on an Eport residing in a Base switch.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.1 Defect ID: DEFECT000302245 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: List of network security vulnerabilities needs to be addressed with BES and FS8-18 platform.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.1 Defect ID: DEFECT000311055 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: The "do not time out if tape pipelining emulation" code needs ported from the 7500 to the 7800. Symptom: After a tape drive has been idle for a few hours and then traffic is restarted, the tape performance is degraded Feature: FCIP Function: Emulation Probability: Medium Found in Release: FOS6.3.
Closed with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0c - GA September 2, 2010 This section lists the defects with Critical, High and Medium Technical Severity closed with a code change as of September 2, 2010 in Fabric OS v6.4.0c. Defect ID: DEFECT000301286 Technical Severity: High Summary: Routes are not properly redistributed after trunk group loses a trunk member. Symptom: In a setup with 8G switches running exchanged base route policy, the routes are not rebalanced properly after a trunk group loses a member.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0c Defect ID: DEFECT000315751 Technical Severity: High Summary: FCIP tunnel bounces on workload start Symptom: Traffic disruption is observed. Workaround: Enable some sort of FICON emulation (XRC or Tape Read/Write Pipelining). Feature: FCIP Function: FCIP Port Probability: High Found in Release: FOS6.4.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0c Defect ID: DEFECT000307117 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: Unable to form an ISL with AP7420 platform Symptom: A switch running FOS6.4.0 cannot form an ISL with AP7420 platform Workaround: Connect AP7420 to a platform that is running an earlier release of FOS than FOS6.4.0 (e.g. FOS6.3.0). Feature: FC Services Function: Fabric Probability: Low Found in Release: FOS6.4.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0c Defect ID: DEFECT000313149 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: Receiving emulation error 60 during FICON read tape emulation. Symptom: Attention status received. Workaround: When FICON path control blocks are stuck at invalid state, disable the tunnel. If issues are occurring with FICON emulation and ESCON devices, disable FICON Emulation. In the case of the failed tape job, resubmit it.
Closed with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0b - GA June 25, 2010 This section lists the defects with Critical, High and Medium Technical Severity closed with a code change as of June 25, 2010 in Fabric OS v6.4.0b. Defect ID: DEFECT000283335 Technical Severity: High Summary: A device with a node WWN of zero connected to an NPIV port queried by CALD causes the switch to panic and reboot Symptom: CALD causing switch to panic and reboot about every 20-30mins.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0b Defect ID: DEFECT000301612 Technical Severity: High Summary: VE port "aptpolicy port_based" did not change internal policy Symptom: When an FX8-24 and a FS8-18 are installed in the same chassis and the user attempts to set the routing policy to port-based, it may not take effect and the internal policy could remain as exchanged based routing. Feature: 8G Platform Services Function: Routing Probability: High Found in Release: FOS6.4.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0b Defect ID: DEFECT000270825 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: Expose all 64 bit port stats counter through SNMP Symptom: 64 bit port stats is only available in CLI via portStats64Show, it's not exposed through SNMP. Feature: Mgmt Embedded - SNMP Function: Other Probability: Low Found in Release: FOS6.4.0 Defect ID: DEFECT000273725 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: Detected termination of webd and triggered call home event.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0b Defect ID: DEFECT000298268 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: I Series tape I/O stops with tape pipelining enabled Symptom: Tape I/O with I Series server is not possible with tape pipelining enabled. Workaround: Disable / do not enable tape pipelining. Feature: FCIP Function: FCIP I/O Probability: Medium Found in Release: FOS6.4.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0b Defect ID: DEFECT000300759 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: Addition of End-to-End Monitors through DCFM or CLI will fail after an HA Failover if Monitors were installed on the switch before the failover. Symptom: On a Condor 2 Platform, if the user has End-to-End Monitors installed and then performs an HA Failover, he cannot further install any new Monitors on chips(s) other than on which End-to-End Monitors were already configured prior to the Failover.
Close with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0b Defect ID: DEFECT000302002 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: Unable to disable default zone from Mi10k in interop fabric(FOS and Mi10k) in IM2 mode Symptom: After a zone merge failure between Mi10k and FOS switches, disable Default zone from Mi10k, throws error as "Error: Zone Activation failed due to error in pushing the data to the rest of the fabric", need a switch reboot to recover.
Closed with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0a - GA June 4, 2010 This section lists the defects with Critical, High and Medium Technical Severity closed with a code change as of June 4, 2010 in Fabric OS v6.4.0a.
Closed with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0a Defect ID: DEFECT000297793 Technical Severity: High Summary: Data encryption, name server fails to show the existence of a specific virtual initiator Symptom: As a result of an external FC port experiencing an excessive number of encoding CRC errors the internal ports are faulted incorrectly by switch firmware, hence a data encryption virtual initiator associated with the internal port fails to appear in name server.
Closed with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0a Defect ID: DEFECT000298730 Technical Severity: High Summary: A LUN sized > 2TB cannot be configured for encryption with the -newLUN option Symptom: There is a potential for hosts to overwrite encryption metadata for encrypted LUNs where Read Capacity (16) is used to determine max LUN LBA (LUNs greater than 2TB in size). Workaround: Do not configure LUNs for encryption, using the -newLUN option if the LUN size is greater than 2TB.
Closed with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0a Defect ID: DEFECT000281212 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: In AG mode, N-Port failover results in F-Ports with attached hosts getting stuck as G_Port Symptom: F-Ports get stuck as G-Ports after AG N-Port failover.
Closed with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0a Defect ID: DEFECT000290784 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: Abort in Read emulation if Attention status received between status and status accept Symptom: IFCCs during Tape Read processing. Workaround: Disable FICON Emulation Feature: FCIP Function: FCIP I/O Probability: Medium Found in Release: FOS6.3.
Closed with Code Change in Fabric OS v6.4.0a Defect ID: DEFECT000299335 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: FICON emulation, core hangs during error recovery Symptom: After an FCIP link failure, an FFDC will occur and some traffic across remaining FCIP links will continue to be disrupted. Feature: FCIP Function: Emulation Probability: High Found in Release: FOS6.4.0 Defect ID: DEFECT000300065 Technical Severity: Medium Summary: Data Encryption, Manual HA failback command on FOS v6.4.