White Papers

Logging into FCoE during system boot
17 Booting VMware ESXi from FCoE
3 Logging into FCoE during system boot
The screenshot below shows the DCBX startup and initiator login to the target to enable OS boot from the
FCoE LUN exposed over the network:
Data center bridging exchange (DCBX) is a protocol which is an extension to the Link layer discovery protocol
(LLDP). DCBX cannot run if LLDP is disabled. DCBX enables the devices connected in a fabric to discover
and exchange configuration information.
Note that the DCBX capabilities are supported by the FCoE capable switch.
In this case, DCBX exchanges FCoE information by default as the interface carries FCoE traffic.
During FC fabric discovery, The FC switch discover the WWPN of a device or host and assign a port address
to the device. This port address is unique and routable over the network and valid only till the device (host or
target) is logged on.
After the DCBx setup and FCF discovery, the initiator successfully logs in to the target, i.e. the FCoE disk is
ready for read/write operations.