HP A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base, Administrator'S Manual

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368 Using the FC-FC routing service
• FC router connected to a B-Series secured edge fabric
• FC router connected to a McDATA Open Mode 1 edge fabric
• FC router connected to a McDATA Fabric Mode edge fabric
• FC router connected to B-Series secured and nonsecured fabrics with EX_Port trunking enabled
• FC router interoperating with older FC routers (XPath 7.4.x and Fabric OS 5.1)
McDATA Enterprise OS switches cannot exist in the backbone fabric.
Integrated Routing
Integrated Routing is a licensed feature that allows 8-Gb/s ports to be configured as EX_Ports supporting
Fibre Channel routing. This license eliminates the need to add a B-Series Multi-Protocol Router Blade to the
HP StorageWorks DC SAN Backbone Director and HP StorageWorks DC04 SAN Director Switch, or use
the HP StorageWorks 400 Multi-Protocol Router for FCR purposes. Using 8-Gb/s ports for Fibre Channel
routing provides double the bandwidth for each FCR connection (when connected to another
8-Gb/s-capable port).
You need an Integrated Routing license for the following:
• HP StorageWorks DC SAN Backbone Director and HP StorageWorks DC04 SAN Director Switch
(8-Gb/s port blades)
• HP StorageWorks 8/40 SAN Switch
• HP StorageWorks 8/80 SAN Switch
You do not need a license for EX_Ports on the HP StorageWorks 400 Multi-Protocol Router or B-Series
Multi-Protocol Router Blade.
Enabling the Integrated Routing license and capability does
not require a switch reboot.
For the HP StorageWorks DC SAN Backbone Director and HP StorageWorks DC04 SAN Director Switch,
if you do not have an Integrated Routing license, you cannot use EX_Ports on the 8-Gb/s port blades; you
can, however, use EX_Ports on the B-Series Multi-Protocol Router Blade without a license.
NOTE: You cannot use EX_Ports on the B-Series Multi-Protocol Router Blade and Integrated Routing in the
same chassis.
Fibre Channel routing concepts
Fibre Channel routing introduces the following concepts:
•
Fibre Channel router (FC router)
A switch running the FC-FC routing service. See ”
Supported platforms for Fibre Channel routing ” on
page 367 for a list of platforms that can be FC routers.
•
EX_Port, VEX_Port
An EX_Port and VEX_Port function similarly to an E_Port and VE_Port respectively, but terminate at the
switch and do not propagate fabric services or routing topology information from one edge fabric to
another. See Chapter 21, ” Configuring and monitoring FCIP extension services ” on page 457 for
details about VE_Ports.
• Edge fabric
An edge fabric is a Fibre Channel fabric with targets and initiators connected through the supported
platforms by using an EX_Port or VEX_Port.
• Backbone fabric
A backbone fabric is an intermediate network that connects one or more edge fabrics. In a SAN, the
backbone fabric consists of at least one FC router and possibly a number of Fabric OS-based Fibre
Channel switches (see Figure 61 on page 371).
• Interfabric link (IFL)
The link between an E_Port and EX_Port, or VE_Port and VEX_Port, is called an
interfabric link (IFL). You
can configure multiple IFLs from an FC router to an edge fabric.