Brass Tacks

FCoE login failure when connecting to Nexus 5548

A couple of months ago while we were installing our Nexus 5548s in the E-Lab, we noticed an FCoE login problem.  Although we configured the 5548s in exactly the same manner described for the Nexus 5020 / 5010 in the FCoE TechBook, the FCoE ENodes would not log in.  At first we thought it was a problem with the ENodes, but an xgig trace showed that the 5548 was not transmitting any DCBX or FIP frames.  As a result, I sent an email off to my friends at Cisco that essentially asked “WTFF?” (Where’s The FIP Frames?).  A short time later, Cisco sent a message similar to  the following:

Hi Erik, 

QoS class-fcoe is not enabled by default on 5548 (to conserve buffers).  You should have seen a warning when you enabled feature fcoe.

Switch(config)# feature fcoe

FC license checked out successfully

fc_plugin extracted successfully

FC plugin loaded successfully

FCoE manager enabled successfully

FC enabled on all modules successfully

Warning: Ensure class-fcoe is included in qos policy-maps of all types

To accomplish this, attach these qos policies under system qos

**********************************************

switch (config-sys-qos)# service-policy type qos input

fcoe-default-in-policy

switch (config-sys-qos)# service-policy type queuing input

fcoe-default-in-policy

switch (config-sys-qos)# service-policy type queuing output

fcoe-default-out-policy

switch (config-sys-qos)# service-policy type network-qos

fcoe-default-nq-policy

**********************************************

Please run the above commands on the switch and let us know if that resolves your issue.

This is also documented in the Cisco QOS document.

I ran the commands they provided and the ENodes immediately logged in.  I’ve since discussed the “Warning” message with Cisco and have encouraged them to consider providing a prompt to the user that would ask if they would like to automatically enable the appropriate service policy.

In any case, since the 5548 was added to the January EMC Support Matrix and the 5548 specific information will not be in the EMC FCoE TechBook until February, I wanted to make sure that these new QOS settings were clearly spelled out somewhere by EMC. 

Thanks for reading!

Connectivity changes for January 2011

The updates for the month of January are listed below:

Brocade (Courtesy of Aditya Nadkarni)

Firmware added to the January ESM

• EOS 9.09.09
• FOS v6.3.2b
• FOS v6.4.1
• FOS v6.3.2a (tagged as the target release for FOS)

Note: Target Releases are a new concept for the January ESM and according to the ESM footnote: “are denoted by a "(T)" immediately following the firmware revision. Target Releases designate the latest firmware releases that EMC recommends be deployed. Target Releases are considered stable based on criteria such as minimum number of installs and runtime in the field, minimal number of reported defects, and zero instances of data loss or data unavailability. Whenever possible, please upgrade to a Target Release.”

Cisco MDS (Courtesy of Aditya Nadkarni)

FC-SW interoperability configuration added to the January ESM

• Cisco NX-OS 5.0(1a) interop support with Brocade blade server modules.

Firmware removed from the January ESM

• SAN-OS 3.2(3a)  

Cisco Nexus (Courtesy of Erik Smith)

Firmware added to the January ESM:

• NX-OS 5.0(2)N1(1) added for Nexus 5000 platforms

Hardware added to the January ESM:

• Nexus 5548

Twinax support table

In my last post, I provided information that described which twinax cables were supported in a number of different configurations.  Recently, Mark Lippitt and I debated the best way to present this information in the February edition of the FCoE TechBook, and decided that creating a table made the most sense. The result of this work is shown below. 

In addition, I agree with Andrew Fidel’s comment.  The fact that we need a table for cable support is very frustrating and is something that should be resolved in the future.  Unfortunately, the switch manufacturers aren’t listening.  Who knows…maybe they could be convinced to make a change if “twinax support tables” becomes a recurring complaint during conversations with their end users.  But for now, we’re stuck with it.

 
 

Thanks for reading!

Update:  In case you need them, the model numbers for the EMC Twinax cables are included below: