Fabric OS Troubleshooting and Diagnostics Guide v6.4.0 (53-1001769-01, June 2010)
Fabric OS Troubleshooting and Diagnostics Guide 69
53-1001769-01
Chapter
7
Virtual Fabrics
In this chapter
•General Virtual Fabric troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
•Fabric identification issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
•Logical Fabric issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
•Base switch issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
•Logical switch issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
•Switch configuration blade compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
General Virtual Fabric troubleshooting
All of the following constraints apply when the Virtual Fabric feature is enabled:
• The base fabric works only in Brocade native mode, not in an interoperable mode.
• The base switch does not have any devices. The base fabric can have devices in remote layer
two switches; traffic between those devices is supported.
• A non-base switch in a Virtual Fabric-capable chassis must not be part of a fabric that serves
as a base fabric for some other logical fabric traffic. Although software will not detect or
prevent users from deploying such a configuration, such a configuration is not supported.
• ICL ports can only be in the base or default switch. If XISL is turned off, you can connect ICLs to
other logical switches.
• A default switch can be configured as a base switch in the Brocade 5100 and 5300 switches,
but not in a Brocade DCX or DCX-4S. Fabric IDs of default switches cannot be manually
changed.
• The default switch is able to participate in a logical fabric using extended ISLs (XISLs). In the
Brocade DCX and DCX-4S, the default switch will not participate in a logical fabric and will be a
purely layer two logical switch.
• EX_ and VEX_Ports are supported in the base switch. EX_Ports cannot be part of any other
switch other than the base switch.
• EX_ and VEX_Ports cannot connect to a fabric that has a logical switch with the Allow XISL use
mode on. The port will be disabled with the reason
Conflict: XISL capability domain.
• Fabric OS v6.2.0 and later support external device sharing only through EX_Ports. Internal
device sharing (sharing a device in a logical fabric with other fabrics, without having an
EX_Port) is not supported.
• A logical fabric cannot have EX_Ports using extended ISLs and cannot serve as a backbone to
any EX_Port traffic. Similarly, the default switch cannot be part of a fabric that serves as a
backbone to any EX_Port traffic.