Managing Virtual Fibre Channels

This chapter contains the following sections:

About VFCs

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) allows Fibre Channel and Ethernet traffic to be carried on the same physical Ethernet connection between the switch and the servers.

The Fibre Channel portion of FCoE is configured as a virtual Fibre Channel (VFC) interface. Logical Fibre Channel features (such as interface mode) can be configured on VFC interfaces.

Before you can use a VFC interface, it must be bound to a physical Ethernet interface that is directly connected to a converged network adapter (CNA). The CNA makes the connection to the Fibre Channel Forwarder (FCF) over a virtual port channel (vPC).

The following switch port modes are used to bind the VFC interface:

  • Virtual fabric (VF) port—Connects to a peripheral device (host or disk) operating as an N port. A VF port can be attached to only one N port.
  • Virtual expansion (VE) port—Acts as an expansion port in an FCoE network. VE ports can connect multiple FCoE switches in the network. You can bind a VE port to a physical Ethernet port or a port channel.

In Cisco UCS Director, VFC configuration is supported on the following Cisco network devices:

  • Cisco Nexus 3000 Series switches
  • Cisco Nexus 5000, 5500, and 5672 Series switches
  • Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switches
  • Cisco MDS 9100 Series switches
  • Cisco MDS 9500 Series switches
  • Cisco MDS 9700 Series switches

Note

For more detailed information about VFCs and configuration guidelines for VFCs, see the Cisco NX-OS Software Configuration Guides.

Creating a VFC

    Step 1   On the menu bar, choose Physical > Network.
    Step 2   In the Network pane, choose the pod.
    Step 3   Click the Managed Network Elements tab.
    Step 4   Select the network device to be configured.
    Step 5   Click the down-arrow icon, and choose Create VFC.

    Alternately, choose the device from the expanded pod and click Create VFC on the Summary tab.

    Step 6   In the Create Vfc dialog box, complete the following fields:
    Name Description

    VFC ID field

    The VFC ID within the valid range from 1 to 8192. The VFC ID creates a VFC interface.

    Select Port Select button

    Click Select. In the Select dialog box, choose the port for this VFC and click Select.

    Switch Port Mode drop-down list

    Choose the switch port mode (E or F). E is for virtual expansion (VE) port. F is for virtual fabric (VF) port. The default is F mode.

    Copy Running configuration to Startup configuration check box

    Check the check box to copy the running configuration to the startup configuration.

    Step 7   Click Submit.

    Associating a VFC

      Step 1   On the menu bar, choose Physical > Network.
      Step 2   In the Network pane, choose the pod.
      Step 3   Click the Managed Network Elements tab.
      Step 4   Select the network device to be configured.
      Step 5   Click the down-arrow icon, and choose Associate VFC.

      Alternately, choose the device from the expanded pod and click Associate VFC on the Summary tab.

      Step 6   In the Associate Vfc dialog box, complete the following fields:
      Name Description

      VFC Id Select button

      Click Select. In the Select dialog box, choose the VFC ID and click Select.

      VSAN Id Select button

      Click Select to choose the VSAN ID that is associated with this VFC.

      Copy Running configuration to Startup configuration check box

      Check the check box to copy the running VLAN configuration to the startup configuration.

      Step 7   Click Submit.