Brocade Web Tools Administrator's Guide v6.1.0 (53-1000606-02, June 2008)

Web Tools Administrator’s Guide 93

53-1000606-02

Chapter

Administering ISL Trunking

In this chapter

This chapter contains the following information:

•About ISL trunking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

•F_port trunk groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

•Disabling or reenabling trunking mode on a port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

•Viewing trunk group information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

About ISL trunking

Interswitch link (ISL) trunking optimizes network performance by forming trunking groups that can

distribute traffic between switches across a shared bandwidth.

A trunking license is required on each switch that participates in the trunk. For details on obtaining

and installing licensed features, see “Managing licensed features” on page 41. For additional

information about ISL Trunking, see the Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide.

Web Tools can be used to create and maintain F_Port masterless trunks. Web Tools cannot be

used to create E_port trunks. For detailed information about E_port ISL Trunking configurations

and criteria, see the Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide.

F_port trunk groups

F_port trunking provides extra bandwidth and robust connectivity for hosts and targets connected

by Access Gateway switches. There are four general criteria for establishing F_port trunking:

• Trunking must be enabled on the ports.

• The trunking license must be enabled on the Access Gateway switch.

• The ports should not be configured for long distance connections.

• The ports should not be port-swapped.

When you create an F_Port trunk, you create a logical entity called a trunk index (TI) that

represents the physical ports. The TI represents all ports in the trunk. If a master port fails, and a

slave port takes over, the TI stays the same.

NOTE

If F_port trunking is configured, a firmware downgrade is not allowed.