Fabric OS Administrator's Guide v7.0.0 (53-1002148-02, June 2011)
Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide 503
53-1002148-02
Interoperability overview
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Features of Connected SANs
Connected SANs provide additional features not possible with segregated SANs. Some of these
features are listed below:
• Island consolidation—Uses the Fabric OS v6.0 or later FC router to connect isolated M-EOS and
Fabric OS fabrics to share devices.
• Backup consolidation—Consolidates backup solutions across Fabric OS and M-EOS fabrics.
• Manageable large-scale storage network—Uses the Fabric OS v6.0 or later FC router to localize
traffic while connecting devices in the metaSAN. This provides a large number of fabrics with a
large number of devices.
• Sharing across an FCIP link—Shares devices between Fabric OS and M-EOS fabrics over a
campus Ethernet or over long-distance IP links beyond 1000 km.
• Sharing across a long-distance FC link—Shares devices between Fabric OS fabrics over
long-distance FC links as far as 300 km.
• LUN sharing—Uses your high-end RAID array connected to an M-series switch to share targets
with a Fabric OS fabric; just connect one M-series switch port to an FC router EX_Port and the
one EX_Port to the Fabric OS edge fabric.
• LSAN zone database binding—Increases FC router scalability to support more FC routers in the
backbone and support more devices in the metaSAN.
Connectivity limitations of a metaSAN containing Fabric OS and M-EOS fabrics are limited only by
the scalability of each individual fabric. For the latest scalability information, refer to the
MyBrocade website at www.brocade.com. Refer to the M-EOS fabric documentation for scalability
considerations.
Establishing Interoperability
The mechanism for establishing interoperability between the FC router and the M-EOS fabric varies
depending on whether the connected M-series switch is a McDATA Mi10K (M-EOSn) switch, or
some other M-series (M-EOSc) switch.
When an EX_Port is connected to an M-EOS edge fabric, the front domain ID must be within a range
the edge M-EOS switch can understand. Valid values are:
• McDATA Fabric mode: 1 – 31 (interopMode 2)
• McDATA Open mode: 97–127 (interopMode 3)
• McDATA Open mode: 1–239 (M-EOSn switch only in McDATA open mode (interopMode 3)
only.)
The default front domain ID assigned to the EX_Port remains at 160 when it is created. However,
when the EX_Port is connected to the M-EOSn switch, a daemon sends a request domain ID (RDI)
command that must be within the valid range M-EOS understands.
When an RDI command is sent to an M-EOSn switch with a valid domain ID defined by standards
and is not within the range an M-EOSn switch understands, the RDI request is rejected. This
behavior of the M-EOSn switch is different from that of M-EOSc switches.
For M-EOSc switches, if you set a front domain ID that is not within the valid range for M-EOS, then
in Fibre Channel routing, a daemon internally requests a valid M-EOS domain ID. Unless you
change the front domain ID, there is no impact.