FCoE policy, profile, and domain configurations

Configuration components

You can use the APIC GUI under the Fabric Access Policies tab to configure policies, policy groups, and profiles to enable customized and scaled-out deployment and assignment of FCoE supporting F and NP ports on your ACI leaf switches. Then, under the APIC the Tenant tab, you can configure EPG access to those ports.

APIC policies and policy groups you create or configure for FCoE support include:

• Access Switch Policy Group: The combination of switch-level policies that support FCoE traffic through ACI leaf switches. You can associate this policy group with a leaf profile to enable FCoE support on designated ACI leaf switches. This policy group consists of the Fibre Channel SAN Policy and Fibre Channel Node Policy.

• Interface Policy Groups: The combination of interface-level policies that support FCoE traffic through interfaces on ACI leaf switches. You can associate this policy group with an FCoE supportive interface profile to enable FCoE support on designated interfaces. You configure two interface policy groups: One policy group for F ports, and one policy group for NP ports.

• Global Policies: The APIC global policies whose settings can affect the performance characteristics of FCoE traffic on the ACI fabric.

The Access Switch Policy Group consists of these policies:

• Fibre Channel SAN Policy: Specifies the EDTOV, RATOV, and MAC Address prefix (also called the FC map) values used by the NPV leaf.

• Fibre Channel Node Policy: Specifies the load balance options and FIP keep alive intervals that apply to FCoE traffic associated with this switch policy group.

The Interface Policy Groups contain these policies that apply to FCoE enablement and traffic:

• Priority Flow Control Policy: Specifies the state of priority flow control (PFC) on the interfaces to which this policy group is applied. This policy specifies under what circumstances QOS-level priority flow control will be applied to FCoE traffic.

• Fibre Channel Interface Policy: Specifies whether the interfaces to which this policy group is applied are to be configured as F ports or NP ports.

• Slow Drain Policy: Specifies the policy for handling FCoE packets that are causing traffic congestion on the ACI Fabric.

The Global QOS Class Policies for Level1, Level2, Level4, Level5, or Level6 connections, contain these settings that affect FCoE traffic on the ACI fabric:

• PFC Admin State must be set to Auto: Specifies whether to enable priority flow control to this level of FCoE traffic (default value is false).

• No Drop COS: Specifies whether to enable a no-drop policy for this level of FCoE traffic designated with a certain Class of Service (COS) level.

• QOS Class—Priority flow control requires that COS levels be globally enabled for the fabric and assigned to the profiles of applications that generate FCoE traffic. COS Preservation must also be enabled—Navigate to Fabric > Access Policies > Policies > Global > QOS Class and enable Preserve COS Dot1p Preserve.

Note

QOS level enabled for PFC and FCoE no-drop must match with the Priority Group ID enabled for PFC on CNA. Only one QOS level can be enabled for no-drop and PFC, and the same QOS level must be associated with FCoE EPGs.

Note

Some legacy CNAs may require the Level2 Global QOS Policy to be used as the No Drop PFC, FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) QOS Policy. If your Converged Network Adapters (CNAs) are not logging into the fabric, and you have noticed that no FCoE Initiation Protocol (FIP) frames are being sent by the CNAs, try enabling Level2 as the FCoE QOS policy. The Level2 policy must be attached to the FCoE EPGs in use and only one QOS level can be enabled for PFC no-drop.

APIC profiles that you can create or configure for FCoE support include:

• Leaf Profile: Specifies the ACI Fabric leaf switches on which to configure support of FCoE traffic. The combination of policies contained in the access switch policy group can be applied to the leaf switches included in this profile.

• Interface Profiles: Specifies a set of interfaces on which to deploy F Ports or NP Ports. You configure at least two leaf interface profiles: One interface profile for F ports, and one interface profile for NP ports. The combination of policies contained in the interface policy group for F ports can be applied to the set of interfaces included in the interface profile for F ports. The combination of policies contained in the interface policy group for NP ports can be applied to the set of interfaces included in the interface profile for NP ports.

• Attached Entity Profile: Binds the interface policy group settings with the Fibre Channel domain mapping.

Domains that you create or configure for FCoE support include:

• Physical Domain: A virtual domain created to support LANs for FCoE VLAN Discovery. The Physical domain will specify the VLAN pool to support FCoE VLAN discovery.

• Fibre Channel Domain: A virtual domain created to support virtual SANs for FCoE connections. A Fibre Channel domain specifies a VSAN pool, VLAN pool and the VSAN Attribute over which the FCoE traffic is carried.

The Fibre Channel Domain includes these components:

• VSAN pool: a set of virtual SANs which you associate with existing VLANs. Individual VSANs can be assigned to associated FCoE-enabled interfaces in the same way that VLANs can be assigned to those interfaces for Ethernet connectivity.

• VLAN pool: the set of VLANs available to be associated with individual VSANs.

• VSAN Attribute: The mapping of a VSAN to a VLAN.

Under the Tenant tab, you configure bridge domain and EPG entities to access the FCoE ports and exchange the FCoE traffic. The entities include:

• Bridge Domain (configured for FCoE support): A bridge domain created and configured under a tenant to carry FCoE traffic for applications that use FCoE connections.

• Application EPG: The EPG under the same tenant to be associated with the FCoE bridge domain.

• Fibre Channel Path: Specifies the interfaces enabled as FCoE F ports or NP ports to be associated with the selected EPG. After you associate the Fibre Channel path with an EPG the FCoE interface is deployed in the specified VSAN.