Brocade Web Tools Administrator's Guide v6.2.0 (53-1001194-01, April 2009)

214 Web Tools Administrator’s Guide

53-1001194-01

Configuring the link cost for a port

This section describes how to set the cost of an interswitch link (ISL). The cost of a link is a

dimensionless positive number. The fabric shortest path first (FSPF) protocol compares the cost of

various paths between a source switch and a destination switch by adding the costs of all the ISLs

along each path. FSPF chooses the path with minimum cost. If multiple paths exist with the same

minimum cost, FSPF employs load sharing over these paths.

Every ISL has a default cost that is inversely proportional to its bandwidth. For a 1-Gbps ISL, the

default cost is 1000. For a 2-Gbps ISL, the default cost is 500.

Use this procedure to set a non-default, “static” cost for any port.

1. Open the Switch Administration window as described on page 41.

2. Click the Routing tab.

3. This step is switch-specific:

For the Brocade 48000 and Brocade DCX, enterprise-class platforms, click the slot number of

the logical switch under Link Cost in the navigation tree.

For Brocade 200E, 300, 4012, 4016, 4018, 4020, 4024, 4100, 4900, 5000, 5100, 5300,

7600 switches, the 7500 and 7500E Extension switches, and the Encryption Switch, click Link

Cost in the navigation tree.

4. Double-click in the row in the Cost column that corresponds to the appropriate port.

5. Type the link cost.

Valid values for link cost are from 1 through 65535. Setting the value to 0 sets the link cost to

the default value for that port.

6. Click Apply.