Brocade Access Gateway Admin Guide v6.1.0 (53-1000605-02, June 2008)

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide 23
53-1000605-02
Access Gateway N_Port trunking
2
Access Gateway trunking considerations
TABLE 4 Access Gateway trunking considerations
Category Description
Area assignment You statically assign the area within the trunk group on the edge
switch. That group is the N_Port masterless trunk.
The static trunk area you assign must fall within the F_Port trunk
group starting from port 0 on a edge switch or blade.
The static trunk area you assign must be one of the port’s default
areas of the trunk group.
Authentication Authentication occurs only on the F_Port trunk master port and
only once per the entire trunk. This behavior is same as E_Port
trunk master authentication. Because only one port in the trunk
does FLOGI to the switch, and authentication follows FLOGI on
that port, only that port displays the authentication details when
you issue the portshow command.
Note: Switches in Access Gateway mode do not perform
authentication.
Management Server Registered Node ID (RNID), Link Incident Record Registration
(LIRR), and (QSA) Query Security Attributes ELS's are not
supported on F_Port trunks.
Trunk area The port must be disabled before assigning a Trunk Area on the
edge switch to the port or removing a Trunk Area from a trunk
group.
You cannot assign a Trunk Area to ports if the standby CP is
running a firmware version earlier than Fabric OS v6.1.0.
PWWN The entire Trunk Area trunk group share the same Port WWN
within the trunk group. The PWWN is the same across the F_Port
trunk that will have 0x2f or 0x25 as the first byte of the PWWN.
The TA is part of the PWWN in the format listed in Table 5 on
page 25.
Downgrade You can have trunking on, but you must disable the trunk ports
before performing a firmware downgrade.
Note: Removing a Trunk Area on ports running traffic is disruptive.
Use caution before assigning a Trunk Area if you need to
downgrade to a firmware earlier than Fabric OS v6.1.0.
Upgrade No limitations on upgrade to Fabric Os v6.1.0 if the F_Port is
present on switch. Upgrading is not disruptive.
HA Sync If you plug in a standby-CP with a firmware version earlier than
Fabric OS v6.1.0 and a Trunk Area is present on the switch, the CP
blades will become out of sync.
Port Types Only F_Port trunk ports are allowed on a Trunk Area port for Fabric
OS v6.1.0. All other port types that include F/FL/E/EX are
persistently disabled in Fabric OS v6.1.0.
Default Area Port X is a port that has its Default Area the same as its Trunk
Area. The only time you can remove port X from the trunk group is
if the entire trunk group has the Trunk Area disabled.