Brocade Access Gateway Administrator's Guide - Supporting Fabric OS v5.3.0 (53-1000633-01, June 2007)

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide 1
53-1000633-01
Chapter
1
Introduction to the Brocade Access Gateway
This chapter describes the functions of Brocade Access Gateway. The Brocade 200E switch and the
Brocade 4012, 4016, 4020, and 4024 embedded switches running Fabric OS 5.3.0 or higher
support Access Gateway (AG).
In this chapter
•Overview of Brocade Access Gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
•Access Gateway port types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
•Port mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
•Port initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
•Failover policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
•Failback policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Overview of Brocade Access Gateway
Brocade Access Gateway allows multiple host bus adapters (HBAs) to access the fabric using fewer
physical ports. Access Gateway mode transforms the 200E or an embedded switch into a device
management tool that is compatible with different types of fabrics, including Brocade-, Brocade
Enterprise OS (EOS), and Cisco- based fabrics. Refer to the matrix in Appendix B, “Compatibility” for
more details.
When a switch is in Access Gateway mode, it is logically transparent to the host and the fabric.
Brocade Access Gateway mode allows hosts to access the fabric without increasing the number of
switches and simplifies configuration and management in a large fabric by reducing the number of
domain IDs and ports.
Brocade Access Gateway is a device management tool and provides only a subset of Fabric OS
commands. It does not consume critical fabric elements that could inhibit scalability. For example,
a fabric that uses Access Gateways to connect hosts requires fewer domain IDs.