HP Fabric OS v7.0.1, Administrator'S Manual

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Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide 503
53-1002446-01
FC-FC routing and Virtual Fabrics
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FIGURE 81
Logical representation of EX_Ports in a base switch
Backbone-to-edge routing with Virtual Fabrics
Backbone-to-edge routing is not supported in the base switch, unless you use a legacy FC router. A
legacy FC router is an FC router configured on a Brocade 7500 switch or an FR4-18i blade.
Base switches can participate in a backbone fabric with legacy FC routers. You cannot connect
devices to the base switch because the base switch does not allow F_Ports. You can, however,
connect devices to the legacy FC router, thus enabling backbone-to-edge routing.
If you connect a legacy FC router to a base switch, you must set the backbone FID of the FC router
to be the same as that of the base switch.
In Figure 80 , no devices can be connected to the backbone fabric (Fabric 8) because base
switches cannot have F_Ports. Figure 82 shows an FC router in legacy mode connected to a base
switch. This FC router can have devices connected to it, and so you can have backbone-to-edge
routing through this FC router. In this figure, Host A in the backbone fabric can communicate with
device B in the edge fabric with FID 20; Host A cannot communicate with device C, however,
because the base switches do not support backbone-to-edge routing.
Backbone fabric
Fabric 8
Edge fabric
Fabric 15
SW7
Edge fabric
Fabric 128
SW5
Fabric 1
SW6
SW2
SW8
SW1
SW4
SW3
E
EX
EX
E