The SAN switching features documented in this guide are described below.
Fibre Channel Interfaces
Fibre Channel ports are optional on the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch. When you use expansion modules up to 8 Fibre Channel ports are available on the Cisco Nexus 5010 switch and up to 16 Fibre Channel ports are available on the Cisco Nexus 5020 switch.
Each Fibre Channel port can be used as a downlink (connected to a server) or as an uplink (to the data center SAN fabric).
Domain Parameters
The Fibre Channel domain (fcdomain) feature performs principal switch selection, domain ID distribution, FC ID allocation, and fabric reconfiguration functions as described in the FC-SW-2 standards. The domains are configured on a per-VSAN basis. If you do not configure a domain ID, the local switch uses a random ID.
N Port Virtualization
Cisco NX-OS software supports industry-standard N port identifier virtualization (NPIV), which allows multiple N port fabric logins concurrently on a single physical Fibre Channel link. HBAs that support NPIV can help improve SAN security by enabling zoning and port security to be configured independently for each virtual machine (OS partition) on a host. In addition to being useful for server connections, NPIV is beneficial for connectivity between core and edge SAN switches.
N port virtualizer (NPV) is a complementary feature that reduces the number of Fibre Channel domain IDs in core-edge SANs. Cisco MDS 9000 family fabric switches operating in the NPV mode do not join a fabric; they only pass traffic between core switch links and end devices, which eliminates the domain IDs for these switches. NPIV is used by edge switches in the NPV mode to log in to multiple end devices that share a link to the core switch. This feature is available only for Cisco MDS Blade Switch Series, the Cisco MDS 9124 Multilayer Fabric Switch, and the Cisco MDS 9134 Multilayer Fabric Switch.
VSAN Trunking
Trunking, also known as VSAN trunking, is a feature specific to switches in the Cisco MDS 9000 Family. Trunking enables interconnect ports to transmit and receive frames in more than one VSAN, over the same physical link. Trunking is supported on E ports and F ports.
SAN Port Channels
PortChannels aggregate multiple physical ISLs into one logical link with higher bandwidth and port resiliency for both Fibre Channel and FICON traffic. With this feature, up to 16 expansion ports (E-ports) or trunking E-ports (TE-ports) can be bundled into a PortChannel. ISL ports can reside on any switching module, and they do not need a designated master port. If a port or a switching module fails, the PortChannel continues to function properly without requiring fabric reconfiguration.
Cisco NX-OS software uses a protocol to exchange PortChannel configuration information between adjacent switches to simplify PortChannel management, including misconfiguration detection and autocreation of PortChannels among compatible ISLs. In the autoconfigure mode, ISLs with compatible parameters automatically form channel groups; no manual intervention is required.
PortChannels load balance Fibre Channel traffic using a hash of source FC-ID and destination FC-ID, and optionally the exchange ID. Load balancing using PortChannels is performed over both Fibre Channel and FCIP links. Cisco NX-OS software also can be configured to load balance across multiple same-cost FSPF routes.
Virtual SANs
Virtual SAN (VSAN) technology partitions a single physical SAN into multiple VSANs. VSAN capabilities allow Cisco NX-OS software to logically divide a large physical fabric into separate, isolated environments to improve Fibre Channel SAN scalability, availability, manageability, and network security. For FICON, VSANs facilitate hardware-based separation of FICON and open systems.
Each VSAN is a logically and functionally separate SAN with its own set of Fibre Channel fabric services. This partitioning of fabric services greatly reduces network instability by containing fabric reconfigurations and error conditions within an individual VSAN. The strict traffic segregation provided by VSANs helps ensure that the control and data traffic of a specified VSAN are confined within the VSAN's own domain, increasing SAN security. VSANs help reduce costs by facilitating consolidation of isolated SAN islands into a common infrastructure without compromising availability.
Users can create administrator roles that are limited in scope to certain VSANs. For example, a network administrator role can be set up to allow configuration of all platform-specific capabilities, while other roles can be set up to allow configuration and management only within specific VSANs. This approach improves the manageability of large SANs and reduces disruptions due to human error by isolating the effect of a user action to a specific VSAN whose membership can be assigned based on switch ports or the worldwide name (WWN) of attached devices.
VSANs are supported across FCIP links between SANs, which extends VSANs to include devices at a remote location. The Cisco MDS 9000 Family switches also implement trunking for VSANs. Trunking allows Inter-Switch Links (ISLs) to carry traffic for multiple VSANs on the same physical link.
Zoning
Zoning provides access control for devices within a SAN. Cisco NX-OS software supports the following types of zoning:
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N port zoning-Defines zone members based on the end-device (host and storage) port.
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Fx port zoning-Defines zone members based on the switch port.
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Domain ID and port number (for Brocade interoperability)
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iSCSI zoning-Defines zone members based on the host zone.
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LUN zoning-When combined with N port zoning, LUN zoning helps ensure that LUNs are accessible only by specific hosts, providing a single point of control for managing heterogeneous storage-subsystem access.
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Read-only zones-An attribute can be set to restrict I/O operations in any zone type to SCSI read-only commands. This feature is especially useful for sharing volumes across servers for backup, data warehousing, etc.
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Broadcast zones-An attribute can be set for any zone type to restrict broadcast frames to members of the specific zone.
To provide strict network security, zoning is always enforced per frame using access control lists (ACLs) that are applied at the ingress switch. All zoning polices are enforced in hardware, and none of them cause performance degradation. Enhanced zoning session-management capabilities further enhance security by allowing only one user at a time to modify zones.
Device Alias Services
All switches in the Cisco MDS 9000 Family support Device Alias Services (device alias) on a per-VSAN basis and on a fabric-wide basis. Device alias distribution allows you to move host bus adapters (HBAs) between VSANs without manually reentering alias names.
Fibre Channel Routing
Fabric Shortest Path First (FSPF) is the standard path selection protocol used by Fibre Channel fabrics. The FSPF feature is enabled by default on all Fibre Channel switches. You do not need to configure any FSPF services except in configurations that require special consideration. FSPF automatically calculates the best path between any two switches in a fabric. Specifically, FSPF is used to perform these functions:
Dynamically compute routes throughout a fabric by establishing the shortest and quickest path between any two switches.
Select an alternative path in the event of the failure of a given path. FSPF supports multiple paths and automatically computes an alternative path around a failed link. FSPF provides a preferred route when two equal paths are available.
SCSI Targets
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) targets include disks, tapes, and other storage devices. These targets do not register logical unit numbers (LUNs) with the name server. The SCSI LUN discovery feature is initiated on demand, through CLI or SNMP. This information is also synchronized with neighboring switches, if those switches belong to the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series.
Advanced Fibre Channel Features
Fibre Channel protocol-related timer values can be configured for distributed services, error detection, and resource allocation.
You must uniquely associate the WWN to a single switch. The principal switch selection and the allocation of domain IDs rely on the WWN. Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches support three network address authority (NAA) address formats
Fibre Channel standards require a unique FC ID to be allocated to an N port attached to an F port in any switch. To conserve the number of FC IDs used, Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches use a special allocation scheme.
FC-SP and DHCHAP
Fibre Channel Security Protocol (FC-SP) capabilities provide switch to switch and hosts to switch authentication to overcome security challenges for enterprise-wide fabrics. Diffie-Hellman Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (DHCHAP) is an FC-SP protocol that provides authentication between Cisco MDS 9000 Family switches and other devices. DHCHAP consists of the CHAP protocol combined with the Diffie-Hellman exchange.
With FC-SP, switches, storage devices, and hosts are able to prove their identity through a reliable and manageable authentication mechanism. With FC-SP, Fibre Channel traffic can be secured on a frame-by-frame basis to prevent snooping and hijacking, even over untrusted links. A consistent set of policies and management actions are propagated through the fabric to provide a uniform level of security across the entire fabric.
Port Security
The port security feature prevents unauthorized access to a switch port by binding specific world-wide names (WWNs) that have access to one or more given switch ports.
When port security is enabled on a switch port, all devices connecting to that port must be in the port security database and must be listed in the database as bound to a given port. If both of these criteria are not met, the port will not achieve an operationally active state and the devices connected to the port will be denied access to the SAN.
Fabric Binding
The fabric binding feature ensures Inter-Switch Links (ISLs) are enabled only between specified switches in the fabric binding configuration. This feature helps prevent unauthorized switches from joining the fabric or disrupting the current fabric operations. This feature uses the Exchange Fabric Membership Data (EEMD) protocol to ensure that the list of authorized switches is identical in all of the switches in a fabric.
Fabric Configuration Servers
The Fabric Configuration Server (FCS) provides discovery of topology attributes and maintains a repository of configuration information of fabric elements. A management application is usually connected to the FCS on the switch through an N port. In the Cisco MDS 9000 Family switch environment, multiple VSANs constitute a fabric, where one instance of the FCS is present per VSAN.