Brocade Access Gateway Administrator's Guide Supporting Fabric OS v7.0.0 (53-1002156-01, April 2011)

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide 1
53-1002156-01
Chapter
1
Access Gateway Basic Concepts
In this chapter
•Brocade Access Gateway overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
•Fabric OS features in Access Gateway mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
•Access Gateway port types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
•Access Gateway hardware considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Brocade Access Gateway overview
Brocade Access Gateway (AG) is a Fabric OS feature that you can use to configure your Enterprise
fabric to handle additional devices instead of domains. You do this by configuring F_Ports to
connect to the fabric as N_Ports, which increases the number of device ports you can connect to a
single fabric. Multiple AGs can connect to the DCX enterprise-class platform, directors, and
switches.
Access Gateway is compatible with M-EOS v9.1 or v9.6 or later, and Cisco-based fabrics v3.0 (1) or
later and v3.1 (1) or later. Enabling and disabling AG mode and configuring AG features on a switch
can be performed from the command line interface (CLI), Web Tools, or Fabric Manager. This
document describes configurations using the CLI commands. Refer to the Web Tools
Administrator’s Guide, the Fabric Manager Administrator’s Guide, or the Data Center Fabric
Manager User Guide for more information about AG support in those tools.
After you set a Fabric OS switch to AG mode, the F_Ports connect to the Enterprise fabric as
N_Ports rather than as E_Ports. Figure 1 shows a comparison of a configuration that connects
eight hosts to a fabric using AG to the same configuration with Fabric OS switches in Native mode.
Switches in AG mode are logically transparent to the host and the fabric. Therefore, you can
increase the number of hosts that have access to the fabric without increasing the number of
switch domains. This simplifies configuration and management in a large fabric by reducing the
number of domain IDs and ports.
Comparing Native Fabric and Access Gateway modes
The following points summarize the differences between a Fabric OS switch functioning in Native
operating mode and a Fabric OS switch functioning in AG operating mode:
• The Fabric OS switch in Native mode is a part of the fabric; it requires two to four times as
many physical ports, consumes fabric resources, and can connect to a Fabric OS fabric only.
• A switch in AG mode is outside of the fabric; it reduces the number of switches in the fabric
and the number of required physical ports. You can connect an AG switch to either a Fabric OS,
M-EOS, or Cisco-based fabric.