Table Of Contents

MDS 9000 Legacy Switch Interop Mode 3

Specifications

Configuration

MDS 9000 Legacy Switch Interop Mode 3

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This chapter describes how to set up an MDS 9000 legacy switch interop mode 3 topology, with MDS 9000 VSANs and Brocade 16-port switches.

This chapter includes the following sections:

•Specifications

•Configuration

Specifications

Legacy switch interoperability mode 3 for Brocade switches with more than 16 ports (currently, the Brocade 3900 and 12000 models) was introduced with MDS SAN-OS Release 1.3. With this VSAN-based interop mode, Brocade switches do not have to be altered from their native mode and can be seamlessly added to a new or existing MDS SAN-OS VSAN.

The primary difference between legacy switch interop mode 3 and legacy switch interop mode 2 is how the Brocade switch sets the core PID. If a Brocade fabric has switches with more than 16 ports, the core PID will be set to 1. For switches with fewer than 16 ports, Brocade initially allocated one nibble of the FC ID / PID in area field 0x0 - F for the port number. This limited the port count to16. When the core PID is set to 1, the allocated bytes in the FC ID / PID allow the use of port numbers 0x00 - FF.

•FC ID / PID 0x021F00—Core PID 0 means domain ID 02, 1 is always set, port is 15, 00 is assigned N port or ALPA.

•FC ID / PID 0x021F00—Core PID 1 means domain ID 02, port is 31, 00 is assigned address or ALPA. Even though the FC ID is the same, the entire second byte is used for the port number.

For VSANs running in legacy switch interop mode 3, the core PID on the Brocade switch is set to 1. This can be verified with the Brocade configshow command.

Configuration

The configuration of the Brocade switch and the MDS 9000 switch is the same as the configuration for legacy switch interop mode 2 with the exception that the interop mode parameter is changed from 2 to 3.

MDS_5# config t

MDS_5 (config)# vsan database

MDS_5 (config-vsan-db)# vsan 113 interop 3

You need to make the same modifications related to portcfgislmode on the Brocade switches as specified in "MDS 9000 Legacy Switch Interop Mode 2." See the "Configuration" section for more information on setting up an MDS 9000 switch and a Brocade switch for interoperability without having to change the Brocade switch from its native interoperability mode.