Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switch Fabric Manager Software Configuration Guide, NX-OS 4.0 (OL-16598-01, June 2008)

CHAPTER
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7-1
Nexus 5000 Series Switch Fabric Manager Software Configuration Guide
OL-16598-01
7
Using Cisco Fabric Services
Nexus 5000 Series switches provide Cisco Fabric Services (CFS) capability, which simplifies
provisioning by automatically distributing configuration information to all switches in the network.
Switch features can use the CFS infrastructure to distribute feature data or configuration data required
by the feature.
This chapter contains the following sections:
• Information About CFS, page 7-1
• CFS Distribution, page 7-2
• CFS Support for Applications, page 7-6
• CFS Regions, page 7-10
• Displaying CFS Distribution Information, page 7-15
• CFS Example Using Fabric Manager, page 7-15
• CFS Example Using Device Manager, page 7-18
• Default Settings, page 7-19
Information About CFS
Some features in the Nexus 5000 Series switch require configuration synchronization with other
switches in the network to function correctly. Synchronization through manual configuration at each
switch in the network can be a tedious and error-prone process.
Cisco Fabric Services (CFS) provides a common infrastructure for automatic configuration
synchronization in the network. It provides the transport function and a set of common services to the
features. CFS has the ability to discover CFS capable switches in the network and discovering feature
capabilities in all CFS capable switches.
Nexus 5000 Series switches support CFS message distribution over Fibre Channel, IPv4 or IPv6
networks. If the switch is provisioned with Fibre Channel ports, CFS over Fibre Channel is enabled by
default. CFS over IP must be explicitly enabled.
CFS provides the following features:
• Peer-to-peer protocol with no client-server relationship at the CFS layer.
• CFS message distribution over Fibre Channel, IPv4 or IPv6 networks.
• Three modes of distribution.