v6.2.0e_ReleaseNotes_v2.0
v6.2.0e_ReleaseNotes_v2.0
0e
Release Notes v2.0
July 6, 2009
Document History
Brocade Fabric OS v6.2.0e Release Notes v1.0 Initial release April 14, 2009
Brocade Fabric OS v6.2.0e Release Notes v2.0 Second release - Update July 6, 2009
Important Notes with
QOS information and
added new appendix
for FICON support
information
Copyright © 2001 - 2009 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Brocade, Fabric OS, File Lifecycle Manager, MyView, and StorageX are registered trademarks and the Brocade B-wing symbol,
DCX, and SAN Health are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries.
All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or
services of their respective owners.
Notice: The information in this document is provided “AS IS,” without warranty of any kind, including, without limitation, any
implied warranty of merchantability, noninfringement or fitness for a particular purpose. Disclosure of information in this
material in no way grants a recipient any rights under Brocade's patents, copyrights, trade secrets or other intellectual property
rights. Brocade reserves the right to make changes to this document at any time, without notice, and assumes no responsibility for
its use.
The authors and Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. shall have no liability or responsibility to any person or entity with
respect to any loss, cost, liability, or damages arising from the information contained in this book or the computer programs that
accompany it.
Notice: The product described by this document may contain “open source” software covered by the GNU General Public
License or other open source license agreements. To find-out which open source software is included in Brocade products, view
the licensing terms applicable to the open source software, and obtain a copy of the programming source code, please visit
http://www.brocade.com/support/oscd.
Export of technical data contained in this document may require an export license from the United States
Government
Overview
Brocade Fabric OS v6.2.0 supports the following new hardware platforms:
In addition to support for the new hardware platforms and blades, there are numerous new features in
Fabric OS v6.2.0, including:
• Virtual Fabrics
o Full VF feature support on DCX, DCX-4S, 5300, 5100
o Single physical chassis can be subdivided into two or more logical switches creating
a logical fabric with other switches
o Per-port assignment of ports to logical switches
o Shared ISLs provide connectivity for multiple logical fabrics
• FCR and FCIP Enhancements
o FCIP (SCSI) Read Tape Pipelining
o Enhancements to SoTCP
o LSAN Tagging
o Support Pathinfo over MetaSAN
o Use FSPF cost in FCR backbone fabric to find shortest path to edge fabric
o In-band management link over FCIP connections for the Brocade 7500
o TCP Byte Streaming for FCIP connections used with WAN optimization hardware
o Improved FCIP statistics support including TCP connection history, high water mark
information and connection snapshot capability
• Support temporary licenses for Adaptive Networking, Integrated Routing, and Fabric
Watch
• Security Enhancements
o IPv6 Auto-configuration
o IPSec with IPv6 (for management port)
o Configurable switch-wide policy requiring authentication of all HBAs
o RADIUS enhancements allowing password expiration and source IP address
information
o LDAP enhancement allowing for alternate domain UPN
o IPv6 certified for JITC Approved Product List
Fabric OS v6.2.0e Release Notes v2.0 Page 5 of 59
• FICON Enhancements
o RNID support for CUP
o New FC addressing modes for support with Virtual Fabrics
o Support for FC8-48 blade with VF-enabled DCX/DCX-4S for FICON environments
• Access Gateway Enhancements
o AG mode supported on Brocade 5100
• Encryption Enhancements
o Data Encryption support in Virtual Fabrics environments
o Support for Tape encryption and compression.
o Key Management support for HP’s SKM
o Support for up to four FS8-18 Encryption blades in a single DCX or DCX-4S chassis
• Brocade HBA feature support
o Beacon adjacent switch port from HCM
o Fabric based boot LUN discovery
o QoS nameserver support allowing query for QoS zone information
o Support for FC Ping
• Miscellaneous
o FC ping support between switches (ping switch WWN)
o Provide path information via CLI
o Frame Redirection support in interopmode 3 (McDATA Open Fabric Mode)
o Support for M-EOSn’s 239 Domain ID mode via FCR in interopmode 3
o System-wide RASLOG
o Port Auto-Disable support
o Ethernet Port Bonding for management ports
o New CLI command to configure F_Port receive buffer credits
• Frame Redirection -- Fabric OS v6.2.0 and M-EOS v9.9 now support Frame Redirection in
McDATA Open Fabric Mode (interopmode 3) fabrics. Frame Redirection zones must be created
and activated from FOS platforms.
• FCR Support for M-EOSn 239 DID mode – FOS platforms now support EX_Port connections
to McDATA Open Fabric Mode Mi10ks using the 239 DID setting.
Security Enhancements
Encryption Enhancements
• Tape Encryption and Compression – Backup applications supported for tape encryption with
the 6.2 release include:
o Veritas NetBackup 6.5
Some models offer bundles that include 2 or more optionally licensed features. These bundles are defined
for each unique product, and are outside the scope of this release note document.
Supported Switches
Fabric OS v6.2.0 supports the Brocade 200E, 300, 4012/4016/4018/4020/4024/4424/5410/5480/5424,
4100, 4900, 5000, 5100, 5300, 7500, 7600, 48000, Brocade Encryption Switch (BES) and DCX/DCX-4S.
All supported products are qualified for Native Connectivity in interopmodes 2 and 3 for deployment in
M-EOS fabrics with the exception of the Brocade 4100.
Access Gateway is also supported by Fabric OS v6.2.0, and is supported on the following switches: the
Brocade 200E, 300, 5100, 4012, 4016, 4018, 4020, 4024, 4424, 5480 and 5424.
Standards Compliance
This software conforms to the Fibre Channel Standards in a manner consistent with accepted
engineering practices and procedures. In certain cases, Brocade might add proprietary
supplemental functions to those specified in the standards. For a list of standards conformance,
visit the following Brocade Web site: http://www.brocade.com/sanstandards
Technical Support
Contact your switch supplier for hardware, firmware, and software support, including product repairs and
part ordering. To expedite your call, have the following information immediately available:
1. General Information
• Technical Support contract number, if applicable
• Switch model
• Switch operating system version
• Error numbers and messages received
• supportSave command output
• Detailed description of the problem, including the switch or fabric behavior immediately
following the problem, and specific questions
• Description of any troubleshooting steps already performed and the results
• Serial console and Telnet session logs
• Syslog message logs
2. Switch Serial Number
The switch serial number is provided on the serial number label, as shown here.
FT00X0054E9
FT00X0054E9
Important Notes
This section contains information that you should consider before you use this Fabric OS
release.
DCFM Compatibility
FOS v6.2.0 is fully compatible with Brocade’s Data Center Fabric Manager (DCFM) v10.1.x
management software. DCFM is a comprehensive SAN management application that enables
end-to-end management of Brocade Data Center Fabrics. It is the next-generation product and the
successor to existing Brocade management products, including Brocade Fabric Manager (FM)
and Brocade Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Manager (EFCM).
DCFM is available in two versions: DCFM Professional, an application bundled with Brocade
switches that is ideally suited for small and medium size businesses that need a light-weight
management product to manage their smaller fabrics (one physical fabric at a time, up to 1,000
ports); and DCFM Enterprise, that is designed for enterprise-class customers and showcases
unparalleled performance and scalability (24 physical fabrics, up to 9,000 switch ports). DCFM
Enterprise configures and manages Brocade DCX Backbones, along with Brocade directors,
routers, switches, and HBAs. It also supports Brocade fabric-based encryption capabilities for
EFCM Compatibility
EFCM v9.7.4 is the minimum version of Brocade management software that should be used to
manage Brocade switches deployed with FOS v6.2. EFCM v9.7.4 cannot manage the DCX-4S or
platforms with the Virtual Fabrics feature enabled. For more information on migrating from
previous versions of EFCM to EFCM v9.7.4, refer to the EFCM v9.7.4 Release Notes
documentation.
Fabric OS Compatibility
The following table lists the earliest versions of Brocade software supported in this release, that
is, the earliest supported software versions that interoperate. Brocade recommends using the
latest software versions to get the greatest benefit from the SAN.
When using the new Virtual Fabrics feature, it is highly recommended that all switches
participating in a fabric with a logical switch use the latest firmware available for those switches.
All switches must be operating at minimum firmware levels noted in the FOS Interoperability
table below.
When using any of Brocade’s encryption platforms (Brocade Encryption Switch or Brocade FS8-
18 blade in a DCX or DCX-4S) it is required that switches attached to hosts and targets or those
that are part of the encryption flow be operating with minimum specified levels:
• 2Gb/4Gb platforms must operate with FOS v5.3.1b or later
• 4Gb/8Gb platforms must operate with FOS v6.1.0e, v6.1.1 or later (4Gb platforms may
use v5.3.1b but are recommended to use the v6.x versions)
• M-EOS platforms must operate with M-EOS v9.8.0 or later for McDATA Fabric Mode
(interopmode 2) or M-EOS 9.9.0 or later for Open Fabric Mode environments
(interopmode 3)
For a list of the effective end-of-life dates for all versions of Fabric OS, visit the following
Brocade Web site:
http://www.brocade.com/support/end_of_life.jsp
Brocade 4012, 4016, 4018, 4020, 4024, 4424 v5.3.1b, v6.1.0e and later 5
Brocade 5410, 5480, 5424 v6.2.0
Brocade DCX, 300, 5100, 5300 v6.1.0e and later 5
Brocade DCX-4S v6.2.0
Table Notes:
1
All zoning and fabric operations performed in a fabric with products running older versions of FOS
should be done via interfaces to products running the latest version of FOS. This is particularly
important for Brocade 3XXX series switches that do not support zoning configuration for newer
products.
2
Other M-EOS models may participate in a fabric with FOS v6.2, but may not be directly attached via
E_port to any products running FOS v6.2. The McDATA ED-5000 director may not participate in a
mixed M-EOS/FOS fabric.
3
It is highly recommended that M-EOS products operate with the most recent version of M-EOS
released and supported for interoperability. M-EOS 9.7.2 is the minimum version of firmware that is
fully qualified to interoperate with FOS 6.2 or later. For support of frame redirection in McDATA
Fabric Mode (interopmode 2), M-series products must use M-EOS v9.8 or later. For support of frame
redirection in McDATA Open Fabric Mode (interopmode 3), M-series products must use M-EOS
v9.9 or later. Only the ES-4400, ES-4700, M6140, and Mi10k may have devices directly attached
that are having data encrypted or unencrypted.
4
When routing to an M-EOS edge fabric using frame redirection, the M-EOS fabric must have a FOS-
based product in order to configure the frame redirection zone information in the edge fabric.
5
When directly attached to a Host or Target that is part of an encryption flow.
6
Products operating with FOS versions less than v5.3.1b or v6.1.0e may not participate in a logical
fabric that is using XISLs (in the base fabric).
7
For Multi-Protocol router interop, FOS-based switches deployed in M-EOS fabrics should not be
directly connected (via ISLs) to the M1620 / M2640 products, but rather attached to other M-EOSc/n
Fabric OS v6.2.0 software is fully qualified and supports the blades for the 48000 platform noted in the
following table:
FC-IP/FC Router blade (FR4-18i) Up to a maximum of 2 blades of this type. This can
be extended under special circumstances but must
be approved by Brocade’s Product Team. Up to 8
FR4-18i blades can be installed if they are used only
for FC Fastwrite or FCIP without routing.
Virtualization/Application Blade (FA4-18) Up to a maximum of 2 blades of this type.
Fabric OS v6.2.0 software is fully qualified and supports the blades for the DCX/DCX-4S noted in the
following table:
Note: the iSCSI FC4-16IP blade is not qualified for the DCX/DCX-4S.
Secure Fabric OS
Secure Fabric OS (SFOS) is not compatible with FOS v6.2. Customers that wish to use the security
features available in SFOS should upgrade to FOS v5.3 or later version, which includes all SFOS features
as part of the base FOS. For environments with SFOS installed on switches that cannot be upgraded to
FOS v5.3 or later version, FC routing can be used to interoperate with FOS v6.2.
Upgrading to Fabric OS v6.2.0 is only allowed from Fabric OS v6.1.0 or later. This policy to support only
one-level migration, which began with FOS v6.0.0, provides more reliable and robust migrations for
customers. By having fewer major changes in internal databases, configurations, and subsystems, the
system is able to perform the upgrade more efficiently, taking less time and ensuring a truly seamless and
non-disruptive process for the fabric. The one-release migration policy also reduces the large number of
upgrade/downgrade permutations that must be tested, allowing Brocade to spend more effort ensuring the
supported migration paths are thoroughly and completely verified.
All products supported by Fabric OS v6.1.0 or v6.1.1 can be upgraded to Fabric OS v6.2. The following
is a list of products that can be upgraded to Fabric OS v6.2:
All downgrades from FOS v6.2.0 require a restart and are disruptive to traffic. Platforms supporting
Virtual Fabrics must have the feature disabled prior to downgrading below v6.2.
To ensure non-disruptive Hot Code Load (HCL), neighbor switches should be operating with FOS v6.2.0
prior to loading FOS v6.2.0 on the following platforms:
4012, 4016, 4018, 4020, 4024, 4100, 200E
When upgrading to FOS v6.2.0 from FOS v6.1.0g or earlier, the CPs do not fully synchronize until both
the new active and new standby CPs are running v6.2.0. This is normal behavior and the firmware
upgrade is still not disruptive.
FOS does not support concurrent FC Routing (EX_Ports) and TopTalkers features. Upgrading to FOS
v6.2.0 requires that one of these features be disabled first.
The Brocade Encryption Switch and DCX with one or more FS8-18 blades may not be downgraded
below FOS v6.1.1_enc.
The Brocade Encryption Switch and DCX with one or more FS8-18 blades may not be downgraded
below FOS v6.2.0 if HP SKM Key Vault is configured. Doing so will result in loss of encryption
services in HP SKM environments.
When Tape Encryption is configured on BES or DCX/DCX-4S with FS8-18 blade, downgrading to
v6.1.1_enc will result in loss of Tape Encryption Services.
If there are multiple node EGs (encryption groups) in a fabric, please complete firmwaredownload on one
node at a time before downloading on another node.
On the Brocade 300, M5424, 5470 and 5480, do not use –n option for downgrading from FOS v6.2 to
prior versions. If –n option is used the firmware versions may get out of synchronization and can cause
rolling kernel panics and switch is unrecoverable. The switch will have to be RMAed.
Scalability
All scalability limits are subject to change. Limits may be increased once further testing has been
completed, even after the release of Fabric OS. For current scalability limits for Fabric OS, refer to the
Brocade Scalability Guidelines document, available under the Technology and Architecture Resources
section at http://www.brocade.com/compatibility
FICON Support
The DCX-4S is not supported for FICON Cascading in interopmode 2 or 3 for use in
mixed fabrics with M-EOS platforms.
Virtual Fabrics:
• On Virtual Fabrics capable platforms, the Virtual Fabrics feature must be enabled after
upgrading to FOSv6.2.0 in order to utilize the related capabilities including Logical Switches
and Logical Fabrics. On units that ship with FOS v6.2.0 or later installed, the Virtual Fabrics
feature is enabled by default on capable platforms.
• When creating Logical Fabrics that include switches that are not Virtual Fabrics capable, it is
possible to have two Logical Switches with different FIDs in the same fabric. Extra caution
should be used to verify the FIDs match for all switches in the same Logical Fabric.
• The aptpolicy can be configured per logical switch. The Admin Guide indicates it is a chassis
level setting.
• In order to support non-disruptive Hot Code Load on a Brocade 5100 with VF enabled, the
total zoning DB size for the entire chassis should not exceed 1MB.
• A switch with Virtual Fabrics enabled may not use Port Mirroring or participate in a fabric
that is using IP Filter or Password Database distribution or Administrative Domains. The
Virtual Fabrics feature must be disabled prior to deploying in a fabric using these features.
Licensing Behavior:
• When operating a switch with Fabric OS v6.2, some licenses may display as “Unknown.”
This is due to changes in licensing requirements for some features that no longer require a
license key that may still be installed on a switch.
Encryption Behavior:
Fabric OS v6.2.0e Release Notes v2.0 Page 19 of 59
• Brocade encryption devices can be configured for either disk or tape operation. The ability to
configure multiple Crypto-Target Containers defining different media types on a single
encryption engine (Brocade Encryption Switch or FS8-18 Blade) is not supported. FS8-18
Encryption Blades can be configured to support different media types within a common
DCX/DCX-4S chassis.
• When using Brocade Native Mode, in LKM installations, manual rekey is highly
recommended. If auto rekey is desired, the key expiry date should be configured only when
the LUN is created. Never modify the expiry date after configuring a LUN. If you modify
the expiry time, after configuring the LUN the expiration date will not update properly.
• SKM is supported with Multiple Nodes and Dual SKM Key Vaults. Two-way certificate
exchange is supported. Please refer to the Encryption Admin Guide for configuration
information.
• The Brocade Encryption Switch and FS8-18 blade support registration of only one HPSKM
Key Vault for FOS v6.2.0. Multiple HPSKMs Key Vaults can be clustered at the SKM server
level. Registering of a second SKM key vault is not blocked. When the registered key vault
connection goes down or the registered key vault is down, users are expected to either correct
the connection with Key Vault or replace the failed SKM and re-register (deregister failed
SKM entry and register the new SKM entry) on the Brocade Encryption Switch or FS8-18
blade. Users are expected to make sure that the replaced (new) SKM key vault is in sync with
the rest of the SKM units in Cluster in terms of Keys Database (user manually syncs the Key
Database from existing SKM Key Vault in Cluster to new or replacing SKM Key Vault using
SKM Admin Guide Provided Key Synchronization methods).
• When the tape key expires in the middle of write operation on the tape, the key is used to
append the data on the tape media. When the backup application rewinds the media and starts
writing to Block-0 again and if the key is expired then a new key is created and used
henceforth. The expired key thereafter is marked as read only and used only for restore of
data from previously encrypted tapes.
• For dual LKM configuration on the Brocade Encryption Switch (BES) or a DCX/DCX-4S
with FS8-18 blades as the primary and secondary key vaults, these LKM appliances must
NOT be clustered (linked).
• The RKM Appliance A1.6, SW v2.2 is supported. The procedure for setting up the RKM
Appliance with BES or a DCX/DCX-4S with FS8-18 blades is located in the Encryption
Admin Guide.
• With Windows and Veritas Volume Manager/Veritas Dynamic Multipathing, when LUN
sizes less than 400MB are presented to BES for encryption, a host panic may occur and this
configuration is not supported for 6.2 release.
• HCL from FOS v6.1.1_enc to v6.2.0 is supported. Cryptographic operations and I/O will be
disrupted but other layer 2 traffic will not.
• Relative to the BES and a DCX with FS8-18, all nodes in the Encryption Group must be at
the same firmware level of FOS v6.2.0 before starting a rekey or First Time Encryption
operation. Make sure that existing rekey or First Time Encryption operations complete
before upgrading any of the encryption products in the Encryption Group. Also, make sure
Fabric OS v6.2.0e Release Notes v2.0 Page 20 of 59
that the upgrade of all nodes in the Encryption Group to FOS v6.2.0 completes before starting
a rekey or First Time Encryption operation.
• To cleanup the stale rekey information for the LUN, follow one of the following two
methods:
Method 1:
• First, modify the LUN policy from “encrypt” to “cleartext” and commit. The LUN will
become disabled.
• Enable the LUN using “cryptocfg --enable –LUN”. Modify the LUN policy from “clear-text”
to “encrypt” with “enable_encexistingdata” to enable the first time encryption and do
commit. This will clear the stale rekey metadata on the LUN and the LUN can be used again
for encryption.
Method 2:
1. Remove the LUN from Crypto Target Container and commit.
2. Add the LUN back to the Crypto Target Container with LUN State=”clear-text”,
policy=”encrypt” and “enable_encexistingdata” set for enabling the First Time
Encryption and commit. This will clear the stale rekey metadata on the LUN and
the LUN can be used again for encryption
• A new LUN state is being introduced: "Disabled (Key not in sync)." This new state
indicates re-keying was started on a remote EE but the local EE is not capable of starting re-
key because it does not have the KeyID which was used by the remote EE in re-keying (i.e.
newest key returned from key vault does not match with the KeyID used by remote EE). User
needs to use "cryptocfg --discoverLUN <Container Name>" interface to re-enable the LUN
only after the keys are synced between two key vaults properly.
Frame Redirection
• In v6.2.0 Frame Redirection zoning is not allowed with Default Zoning (“all access” in IM0
and default zone in IM2). This was allowed in prior releases. There is no SW enforcement to
block the upgrade.
Adaptive Networking/Flow-Based QoS Prioritization:
• When using QoS in a fabric with 4G ports or switches, FOS v6.0 or later must be installed on
all products in order to pass QoS info. E_Ports from the DCX to other switches must come up
AFTER 6.0 is running on those switches.
• Flow based QoS is NOT supported on FC8 blades in the Brocade 48000.
• Any products that are not capable of operating with FOS 6.0 may NOT exist in a fabric with
Flow based QoS. Major problems will occur if previous generation 2G products exist in the
fabric.
• For the Brocade 4100 and 5000, if all of the ports are E_Ports and the switch is upgraded to
Fabric OS v6.2.0, the buffers on the E_Ports are changed to utilize the QoS model. If the
switch is rebooted, 28 of 32 ports will come up in QoS mode; the last four ports will come up
in buffer-limited mode. Workarounds include disabling long distance configuration for these
ports or explicitly disabling QoS on other ports, freeing up buffers for the last four ports.
FCR
Port Mirroring
• On the Brocade 5300, the port mirroring feature has a limitation where all port mirror
resources must stay within the same ASIC port group. The resources are the configure mirror
port, Source Device, and Destination Device or ISL, if the Destination Device is located on
another switch. The ASIC port groups are 0-15, 16-31, 32-47, 48-63, and 64-79. The routes
will be broken if the port mirror resources are spread across multiple port groups.
• Port Mirroring is not supported on a switch with the Virtual Fabrics feature enabled.
10G Interoperability
• 10G interop between FC10-6 and McDATA blades is not supported due to a HW limitation,
however the FC10-6 is supported in a chassis running in Interopmode 2 or 3 (FC10-6 to
FC10-6 connections only). An FC10-6 blade will not synchronize with a McDATA 10G
blade but will not negatively impact the system.
Port Fencing
• When the port fencing feature is enabled for ITW or CRC errors, the first set of errors
detected on an active link that meet the custom high threshold level set by the user (or the
default threshold level) is always ignored to account for expected link transition errors. The
port is only disabled upon detection of a second set of errors, i.e. the next time the user-set
threshold level (or default threshold level) is reached. This prevents a port from being
disabled due to normal link transition behaviors.
• When using the Port Fencing feature, you must first run the fwalarmsfilterset command. This
command enables the port and allows you to receive Port Fencing messages.
• Port Fencing can be inadvertently disabled from Web Tools. This happens when you do the
following:
1. Open the Fabric Watch configuration window.
Fabric OS v6.2.0e Release Notes v2.0 Page 23 of 59
2. Check the "SNMP Trap" checkbox in the "Above" row.
This change in WebTools disables Port Fencing. If this happens, you must re-enable the Port
Fencing bit from the command line interface.
QOS
The fix for the defect 250438 included in this release changes the default behavior of the
Adaptive Networking QoS feature as follows upon firmware upgrade:
• The default QoS behavior is changed to be “disabled” on 4G platforms.
• The default QoS behavior is changed to be “disabled” on the “Extended Fabrics E-ports”
on both 4G and 8G platforms.
This fix solves the following unexpected behaviors that occurred when Adaptive Networking
QoS feature was enabled by default in the previous FOS releases:
• Splitting of a single trunk group into multiple trunk groups upon port toggle, since
the toggled ports come online with QoS enabled while the remaining ports in the
trunk group have QoS disabled.
• Fewer buffer credits being made available to normal E-ports after a port toggle even
when QoS is not being utilized.
• Unexpected change to fill word configuration on an Extended Fabrics E-port after a
port toggle.
o If an Extended Fabrics E-port is originally using IDLE primitives as fill
words, and if that port toggles, the fill word configuration will be changed to
use ARB primitives.
Note:
After upgrading to this firmware release, if users want to enable Adaptive Networking
QoS feature on 4G platforms, and on Extended Fabrics E-ports on both 4G and 8G
platforms, they must do so explicitly through the available user interfaces.
Extended Fabrics and R_RDY Flow Control
Beginning with Fabric OS v5.1, Brocade supported the Extended Fabrics feature in
conjunction with R_RDY flow control (R_RDY flow control mode can be enabled via
portCfgISLMode command). R_RDY flow control mode that uses IDLE primitives does not
support Brocade frame-based Trunking for devices such as Time Division Multiplexor
(TDM.) In order to overcome this limitation and provide support for frame-based Trunking
with Extended Fabrics, Fabric OS v6.2.0 has been enhanced to support interoperability with
these distance extension devices.
Fabric OS v6.2.0 allows Extended Fabrics E_ports to operate in VC_RDY mode using either
ARB or IDLE primitives as fill words. This allows frame-based Trunking to be supported on
Extended Fabrics E-ports even when IDLE primitives are configured for these ports when
operating in native VC_RDY mode. Prior to this change, frame-based Trunking was
supported only when ARB primitives were used in VC_RDY mode. With Fabric OS v6.2,
frame-based Trunking is supported on Extended Fabrics E_ports regardless of whether IDLE
or ARB primitives are used when operating in native VC_RDY mode.
Implementation
The portcfglongdistance CLI parameter “VC Translation Link Init” is now overloaded to
specify if the long distance link should use IDLE or ARB primitives. By default vc_init is
portCfgFillWord
Configures the fill word for a single 8G FC port.
Description Use this command to configure the fill word of an 8G FC port. This command is not
applicable to non 8G FC port. This command disables and re-enables the port and the
port comes online with the new fill word setting. The configuration is stored in
nonvolatile memory and is persistent across switch reboots or power cycle.
The execution of this command is subject to Admin Domain or Virtual Fabric restrictions
that may be in place.
slotnumber For bladed systems only, specifies the slot number of the port to be
configured, followed by a slash (/).
portnumber Specifies the number of the port to be configured, relative to its slot for
bladed systems. Use switchShow for a listing of valid ports.
mode Specifies the fill word for portnumber. This operand is required. Valid
values are one of the following:
Behavior
Default mode The only mode of operation in FOS 6.1 up to this time had been the Idle
implementation. With the introduction of FOS v6.1.2 there will be the
introduction of the new command to facilitate a change to the ARB
implementation. FOS 6.2 specifically v6.2.0, v6.2.0a & v6.2.0b had defaulted
to ARB/ARB for 8Gb devices. With the introduction of v6.2.0c the new
command will default to mode 0 (Idle) and provide the user the ability to
configure the ARB configuration.
Fabric OS v6.2.0e Release Notes v2.0 Page 26 of 59
Existing Product For product in the field this change has no effect on current configurations. The
mode is currently 0 and during a firmware upgrade the mode will remain 0 and
no devices will be impacted. Should a new device be added to the
configuration that requires the ARB sequence those ports can be configured at
such time.
Loading 6.2.0c will not automatically change the mode. In current
configurations the mode will have to be changed manually.
This change does not affect 1Gb/2Gb or 4Gb devices. Any of the settings of 0
or 1 have no affect on these devices. It only affects devices that negotiate or are
fixed to 8Gb speeds.
Changing the mode on The portCfgFillWord command will change the configuration parameter and
the fly after v6.2.0c has automatically disable/enable the port for which the command invoked.
been installed. Subsequent link initializations will use ARB(FF).
Other scenarios The command has no effect on 1Gb / 2Gb /4Gb devices but the mode is
persistent. If in the future, a device attempts to negotiate or is fixed to 8G the
configured mode will take effect. The persistent configuration is on a port by
port basis (i.e. if an 8Gb device was connected to a 2Gb or 4Gb optic and that
optic was replaced with an 8Gb optic, then the current behavior of the mode is
activated.)
Documentation Updates
This section provides information on last-minute additions and corrections to the
documentation. The most recent Fabric OS v6.2.0 documentation manuals are available
on the Brocade Partner Network: http://partner.brocade.com/
On page 9, in Chapter 1, under the heading “Setting the static addresses for the Ethernet network interface,”
remove the following example from step 3:
In chapter 2, “Managing User Accounts” on page 70 under the heading “RADIUS configuration with
Admin Domains or Virtual Fabrics” replace the bullets:
• HomeContext is the designated home Virtual Fabric for the account. The valid values are between
1 to 128 and chassis context. The first valid HomeContext key-value pair is accepted by the
switch, Additional HomeContext key-value pairs are ignored.
• HomeLF is the designated home Virtual Fabric for the account. The valid values are between 1 to
128 and chassis context. The first valid HomeLF key-value pair is accepted by the switch,
additional HomeLF key-value pairs are ignored.
RADIUS authentication requires that the account have a valid role through the attribute type
Brocade-Auth-Role. The additional attribute values ADList, HomeAD, HomeLF, and LFRoleList
are optional. If they are unspecified, the account can log in with AD0 as its member list and home
Admin Domain or VF128 as its member list and home Virtual Fabric. If there is an error in the
ADlist, HomeAD, LFRoleList, or HomeLF specification, the account cannot log in until the AD
list or Virtual Fabric list is corrected; an error message is displayed.
In the next example, on a Linux FreeRadius Server, the user takes the “zoneAdmin” role, with
VFlist 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15 17, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 29, 31 and HomeLF 1.
user300 Auth-Type := Local, User-Password == "password"
Brocade-Auth-Role = "zoneadmin",
Brocade-AVPairs1 = "HomeLF=1;LFRoleList=securityadmin:2,4-8,10”
Brocade-AVPairs2 = "LFRoleList=admin:11-13, 15, 17, 19;user:22-25,29,31"\
On page 77, “LDAP configuration and Microsoft Active Directory” the following bullets should be added:
• You can use the User-Principal-Name and not the Common-Name for AD LDAP authentication.
To provide backward compatibility, support authentication based on the Common Name is still
supported. Common Name based-authentication is not recommended for new installations.
• A user can belong to multiple groups as long as one of the groups has the same name as the
Brocade role name. Among those groups, one group name must match with either the Brocade
role or mapped to a switch role in the Brocade switch.
Fabric OS v6.2.0e Release Notes v2.0 Page 28 of 59
• A user can be part of any Organizational Unit (OU).
should be:
In Chapter 4, “Configuring Advanced Security” on page 120, the following HBA models should be added
to the list of supported HBAs:
In chapter 4, “Configuring Advanced Security” on page 146 under the heading “Example of an End-to-End
Transport Tunnel mode” replace the word BRCD7500 with Remote Host and replace steps 1 through 9
with the following:
Secure traffic between two systems using AH protection with MD5 and configure IKE with pre-shared
keys. The two systems are a switch, BROCADE300 (IPv4 address 10.33.74.13), and an external host
(10.33.69.132).
1. On the system console, log in to the switch as Admin and enable IPsec.
2. Create an IPsec SA policy named AH01, which uses AH protection with MD5.
5. Import the pre-shared key file (for example, ipseckey.psk) using the secCertUtil command.
7. Create an IPsec transform named TRANSFORM01 to use transport mode to protect traffic
identified for IPsec protection and use IKE01 as key management policy.
8. Create traffic selectors to select the outbound and inbound traffic that needs to be protected.
9. Verify the IPSec SAs created with IKE using the ipsecConfig --show manual-sa –a command.
10. Perform the equivalent steps on the remote peer to complete the IPsec configuration. Refer to your
server administration guide for instructions.
On page 150, in Table 41, the row for IPSec applies to FCIP IPSec. For IPSec (Ethernet), only MD5 is
blocked in FIPS mode. DH group 1 is FIPS compliant and is not blocked.
In Chapter 8, “Installing and Maintaining Firmware” on page 220, the following paragraph should be added
to the caution statement:
On page 290, in Chapter 10, in Table 69, for the FS8-18 blade, change the support under the Brocade 48000
(CP4) heading to ‘unsupported’.
On page 351, in the section “Limitations and restrictions of Traffic Isolation,” add the following items:
• Two N_Ports that have the same shared area cannot be configured in different TI zones. This
limitation does not apply to E_Ports that use the same shared area.
• Ports that are in different TI zones cannot communicate with each other if failover is disabled,
even if they are in the same (regular) zone.
Host 1 can communicate with Target 3, however, because even though N_Port 3 is in a
different TI zone than Host 1, Host 1 and Target 3 are connected to the same switch, with no
E_Ports between.
In chapter 16, “Using the FC-FC Routing Service,” under the section Supported Configurations on page
428, add the following note after the last paragraph:
In configurations with two backbones connected to the same edge fabric, routing is not
supported between edge fabrics that are not directly attached to the same backbone. Routing
over multiple backbones is a multi-hop topology and is not allowed.
In chapter 20, “Configuring and Monitoring FCIP Extension Services,” under the heading “Constraints for
FC Fastwrite” on page 540, the following bullet should be added to the list of bullets:
On page 420, in the section “QoS zones,” replace the last paragraph on the page (the paragraph starting
with “A QoS zone has a special name…”) with the following:
A QoS zone has a special name, to differentiate it from a regular zone. The format of the QoS zone
name is as follows:
Where id is a flow identifier that designates a specific virtual channel for the traffic flow and xxxxx is
the user-defined portion of the name. For example, the following are valid QoS zone names:
QOSH3_HighPriorityTraffic
QOSL1_LowPriorityZone
The switch automatically sets the priority for the “host,target” pairs specified in the zones based on the
priority level (H or L) in the zone name.
The flow id allows you to have control over the VC assignment and control over balancing the flows
throughout the fabric. The id is from 1 – 5 for high priority traffic, which corresponds to VCs 10 – 14.
For low priority traffic, the id is from 1 – 2, which corresponds to VCs 8 and 9. The id is optional; if it
is not specified, the virtual channels are allocated using a round-robin scheme.
On page 424, in the section “Setting traffic prioritization,” replace step 2 with the following:
where:
id A flow identifier that indicates a specific virtual channel to which the traffic is
assigned. This value is from 1 – 5 for high priority traffic and from 1 – 2 for low
priority traffic.
zonename The user-defined part of the name of the zone to be created.
member A member or list of members to be added to the zone. A zone member must be
specified using WWN only.
In Section II, “Licensed Features,” the chapter numbering is wrong. The correct chapter numbers should
be:
Chapter 16, “Optimizing Fabric Behavior”
Chapter 17, “Using the FC-FC Routing Service”
Chapter 18, “Administering Advanced Performance Monitoring”
Chapter 19, “Administering Extended Fabrics”
Chapter 20, “Administering ISL Trunking”
Chapter 21, “Configuring and Monitoring FCIP Extension Services”
Chapter 22, “FICON Fabrics”
Chapter 23, “Configuring and Monitoring FICON Extension Services”
The chapter numbers referred to in the “Documentation Updates” section of this release note refer to the
original chapter numbers.
The following text should be added to the bpPortloopbackTest (page 55) and the bpTurboramTest
commands (page 57) and the associated man pages on the switch:
• A [--slot slotnumber] operand should be added to the syntax. This operand specifies the
slotnumber and is required on bladed systems.
• The following text should be added to both commands: “Before running this diagnostic, you must
disable the chassis and clear all logs using the following command sequence:
1. chassisdisable
2. slotstatsclear
3. diagclearerror -all
4. burninerrclear
5. cryptocfg --disableEE (if the encryption engine is in enabled state)”
On page 89, cfgDefault command and associated man page: The new –chassis parameter introduced in this
release is currently unavailable. When you execute configdefault –chassis in the root or admin role, a
permission denied message is displayed. Use the –all parameter instead.
On page 543, portCfg command and associated man page, the following should be changed:
• Under the ipf parameter, the sentence “The IP network connection between two 7500 routers or
two FC4-18i blades is configured…” should read: “The IP network connection between two 7500
routers or two FR4-18i blades is configured…”
On page 787”systemVerification” command and associated man page, the following should be changed:
• The first note in the Notes section should read: “The switch must be offline for this command to
run. If Virtual Fabrics are enabled on the switch, run chassisDisable to take all Logical Switches
offline.”
• The third note in the Notes section should read: “On platforms that include a security processor,
you must disable the security processor by running cryptocfg --disableEE slot before running
systemVerification. You must re-enable the security processor with the cryptocfg -enablEE slot
command once system verification is complete.”
• The following note should be added to the Notes section: “Do not perform any configuration
changes such as configUpload or configDownload while the systemVerification test is in
progress.”
On page 853: The permission table in the command availability chapter, Appendix A, for the aptpolicy
command incorrectly states that the command requires chassis permissions. This is not the case as this
command is executed on a per logical switch basis. The context value for aptpolicy should read VF and the
switch type is “All”.
The following error should be corrected in the man page for the configure command:
• The man page currently states about the Allow XISL use parameter: “On the Brocade 5100 or
5300 default switch, the feature is disabled by default (default value: yes).”
• The description should be corrected to read: “On the Brocade 5100 or 5300 default switch, the
feature is disabled by default (default value: no).”
• Note that the corresponding description in the Command Reference (page 107) is correct.
On page 47, in the “Preinstallation Messages” section, append the first paragraph and following courier text
with the following additional information:
Fabric OS v6.2.0e Release Notes v2.0 Page 33 of 59
The blocking cases, except the new cases specific to Fabric OS v6.2.0, can be removed. The
blocking cases are not accumulative from version to version.
• On page 45, “Port Class Default Settings,” the link failure count (high) setting was changed
from 1000 to 500. The loss of synchronization count (high) was changed from 1000 to 500.
• On page 47, “E_Port Class Default Settings,” the link failure count (high) setting was changed
from 5 to 500. The loss of synchronization count (high) was changed from 1000 to 500.
• On page 49, “F/FL_Port Class Default Settings,” the link failure count (high) setting was
changed from 1000 to 500. The loss of synchronization count was changed from 1000 to 500.
In Chapter 8, on page 58, the example in step 3 is missing the Link Reset class. The new menu is as
follows:
1 : Link loss
2 : Sync loss
3 : Signal loss
4 : Protocol error
5 : Invalid words
6 : Invalid CRCs
7 : RXPerformance
8 : TXPerformance
9 : State Changes
10 : Link Reset
11 : return to previous page
• 10: coreblade(10)
• 11: applicationblade(11)
The entry for the brocade 5100 in Table 11 (Access Gateway Default F_Port-to-N_Port Mapping) on page
55 should read as follows:
• On page 77, under the topic “Master Keys”, the opening sentence should read, “When an
RSA or SKM key vault is used”.
• On page 78, the three bulleted items should include SKM, as follows:
o Backup master key, which is enabled any time a master key exists when using an
RSA or SKM key vault.
o Restore master key, which is enabled when using an RSA or SKM key vault and
either no master key exists or the previous master key has been backed up.
o Create new master key, which is enabled when using an RSA or SKM key vault
and either no master key exists or the previous master key has been backed up.
• On page 95, the following lines should be removed from the Help command output.
• On page 119, Step 2, “Set the RKM key vault type” should read “Set the SKM key vault
type”.
SecurityAdmin:switch>cryptocfg --genmasterkey
SecurityAdmin:switch>cryptocfg –exportmasterkey
3. Enter the pass phrase when prompted. The pass phrase is used for the master key encryption.
A pass phrase must be between 8 and 40 characters in length and can contain any character
combination. Make a note of the key ID and the pass phrase. You will need the key ID and
pass phrase if you should need to restore the master key from backup.
All references to the FC4-16IP blade (iSCSI blade) should be ignored. The DCX Backbone does NOT
support the FC4-16IP.
Power cords
The types of power cords provided with the Brocade DCX are specific to the country where it is installed.
For each of these types of power cords (Table 5), the end that connects to the Brocade DCX has an IEC
60320/C19 cable connector. The AC power receptacles on each power supply are equipped with IEC
60320/C20 power connectors.
Argentina X
Australia X
Austria X
Bahrain X
Belgium X
Brazil X
Chile X
China, People’s X
Rep
Czech, Rep. of X
Denmark X
Egypt X
England X
Finland X
France X
Germany X
Greece X
Hong Kong X
Hungary X
India X
Indonesia X
Ireland, North X
Ireland, South X
Israel X
Italy X
Japan X
Korea, South X
Malaysia Alternate Recommended
Mexico X
Monaco X
Netherlands X
New Zealand X
Norway X
Poland X
Portugal X
Puerto Rico X
Russia X
Saudi Arabia X
Scotland X
Singapore X
South Africa X
Spain X
Sweden X
Switzerland X
Taiwan x
Turkey X
United Arab X
Emirates
United Kingdom/ X
Fabric OS v6.2.0e Release Notes v2.0 Page 37 of 59
Ireland
United States X
Venezuela X
Yugoslavia X
The entry for step 8 on page 65 should be deleted. When you pull the WWN card out by the pull tab (step
7), it unplugs directly from the backplane.
2. Hold the card by the pull tab and plug the card into the backplane. Use the Philips screwdriver
and the captive screw to attach the WWN card to the chassis.
Power Supply Status Flashing green Power supply failure. Replace power supply.
Brocade 7500 Extension Switches Hardware Reference Manual (Publication Number 53-
1000026-04)
Table 4 on page 25 describes LED operation for the Fibre Channel ports. Following is an addition to this
table that describes operation of the two GbE ports.
Port Status No light No signal or light carrier Verify the unit power
(media or cable) LED is on, and check the
detected. SFP and cable.
A fully populated Brocade 48000 with eight FC8-32 or eight FC8-16 port blades does not have enough
power with only one power supply. It is recommended that the 48000 be configured with four power
supplies in this scenario. The blades will not power down or fail to power up unless three power supplies
fail. A fully populated 48000 will continue to operate properly with two power supplies.
The Hardware Components section on page 2 should include the following sub-bullet beneath the
“Modular hot-swappable field replaceable units (FRUs) bullet:
• Two power supplies are required at all times in a fully-populated 48000 chassis.
Table 3-2 “System Status LED Patterns During Normal Operation” has the incorrect behavior listed in row
three. Instead of reading Slow-flashing green, it should read Flashing amber/green.
Under “Regulatory Compliance” in “Product Specifications” (Appendix A), add the following statement:
Under “Regulatory Compliance” in “Specifications and Regulatory Compliance” (Appendix A), add the
following statement:
Attention: Never use the power cord packed with your equipment for other products.
Change the IP address, subnet mask, and gateway address as directed by the customer. To change
the addresses, type the following and press Enter.
system ip address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy zzz.zzz.zzz.zzz
The IP address is xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, the subnet mask is yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy, and the gateway address
is zzz.zzz.zzz.zzz, where the octets xxx, yyy, and zzz are decimals from zero through 255. If an
address is to remain unchanged, type the current address in the respective field.
On page 515, in Chapter 86, the “TRCK-1004” raslog messages are not logged in v6.2.0 due to feature
deprecation.
This section lists defects closed in Fabric OS v6.2.0e. Note that when a workaround to an issue is available, it is
provided.
This section lists defects closed in Fabric OS v6.2.0d. Note that when a workaround to an issue is available, it is
provided.
Summary: In B2E routed environment, when user executes Pathinfo command in BB querying for xlate
domain, the switch may panic.
Summary: Brocade switch is sending RSCN event Qualifier as 0x20 for FOS 6.1.x and 0x08 FOS v6.1.0g and
FOS v6.2.0.
Symptom: Some OS/HBA combinations take down FC link when N_port generated RSCN are delivered by
switch with 0x08 or 0x20 as event qualifier. Revert back to FOS v6.0 way of sending as 0x0.
Summary: When upgrading a switch with an FC10-6 blade from FOS v6.1 to v6.2, the standby CP may go
into a rolling reboot.
Summary: In routed environment, after upgrading to v6.2.0, command 'fcrfabricshow' displays ex-port # as 0
Summary: Out of Memory condition on switch occurred, due to memory leak in nsd process.
Symptom: Mixed fabric running in Interopmode2, switch hafailover/hareboot occurs due to out of memory
occurrence.
Summary: Switches leaking memory slowly over extended period while being managed by DCFM.
FICON Configurations
Cascading of directors and switches is limited to one hop for a FICON environment with the following exceptions:
• Up to three hops are supported for FCIP with a pair of Brocade 7500 switches used for FCIP extension.
The following FCIP configuration is supported for DCX:
“DCX – ICL-DCX –7500 – 7500 - DCX – ICL- DCX”.
• The DCX Backbone with Inter Chassis Links (ICLs) consists of two cascading domains. These ICLs
should be considered the same as very high speed ISL trunks.
The fabric security attributes must be configured and 2-byte link addressing must be used whenever a
channel connected to one chassis needs to reach a control unit connected to a port on the other chassis. The
ICLs provide ample bandwidth in a controlled environment which allows the hop to be disregarded from a
service perspective. Therefore, the following configuration is supported:
“DCX – ICL-DCX – ISL- DCX – ICL- DCX”.
When configuring this way, care should be taken with other ISL connections to avoid multi-hop conditions.
System architects can treat a pair of DCX directors connected via ICLs as a single entity.
Note: Multiple 10 Gb/sec ISLs and FCIP links can load-share between cascaded FICON directors/switches but do
not load balance in a FICON configuration.
Area Comments
When changing from an existing synchronization method using IDLEs to run FICON at 8 Gb/sec, Brocade recommends
using ARBff (fill words). Information on this configuration can be found in the Important Notes section of this document
under 8G Link Initialization & Fill Words. This is a disruptive change. IBM FICON channels and devices configured for
8Gb/sec Links 8Gb/sec should set the switch/director to ARBff using command portcfgfillword
It is recommended to stop I/O traffic that is going through fixed port switches (4100, 4900, 5100, 5300, 7500) prior to
Firmware downloading firmware in a fabric running FOS version less than 6.2.0g since this may cause the ports to be reset resulting
Downloads in generation of IFCCs. This is resolved in fabrics running 6.2.0g or later.
Firmware Replacement of a CP card in the Brocade 48000 may cause disruption of I/O traffic. Brocade recommends that the CP be
Downloads replaced during a scheduled downtime to prevent disruption in FICON environments.
Brocade recommends using DCFM for managing the following environments: pure FOS based fabrics, mixed FOS and
M-EOS fabrics where the FOS switch/director is the seed switch. EFCM is the recommended management software for
Manageability M-EOS only fabrics when a FOS switch or director can not be used as the seed switch.
In a mixed fabric environment, an M-EOS switch must be principal switch if the fabric is in Interopmode 2 (McDATA
Manageability Fabric Mode) .
Manageability It is suggested that default parameters for Port Fencing be used to avoid taking ports down for normal fabric events.
Manageability Firmware download is executed sequentially if ECFM is used for downloading code to FOS switches.
As a "Best Practice" for deploying FOS switches/directors into a FICON environment, verify the FOS version shipped with
the most current FOS recommendation. It is recommended to update all FOS switch/directors to the same FOS levels for
Manageability production.
Fabric administrators should check the Link Incident Report (LIR - Port x "FF") for any failed component incidents in
Manageability switches/directors as these are not reported to z/OS through the CUP.
Node descriptor information is obtained through the Element Manager instead of the fabric wide node descriptor list when
Manageability using DCFM to manage M-EOS switches.
When DCFM 10.1.3 is used for managing TI zones, zone propagations may experience a timeout. This issue will be
Manageability resolved in later FOS releases.
Brocade recommends using 50 micron multimode fiber optic cabling rated at 2000 MHz-km (OM3 fiber) for connecting to
8 Gb/sec short wavelength (SX) small form factor pluggable optics (SFPs). Other 50 micron and 62.5 micron multimode
Optics fiber may be used as an alternative, but distance limitations may exist.
If a port card is removed from a system with Virtual Fabrics enabled and replaced by a port card with fewer ports, the
missing ports will not be able to be removed which results in configuration change problems. To prevent this, the ports
Serviceability should be removed from the Logical Switch they are assigned to prior to the card being removed.
Performance of optical links depends upon the cleanliness of the cables and connectors, especially at 8 Gb/sec or higher
Serviceability speeds. Consult with your switch and cable vendors for proper cable maintainence.
Traffic Isolation
Zones Enable Lossless DLS when activating Traffic Isolation (TI) Zones to avoid any traffic disruption.
Traffic Isolation Beginning with the FOS 6.0.2e release, Traffic Isolation (TI) Zoning with FICON now supports enabling or disabling of
Zones the failover option. Assistance from service support should be sought before attempting to enable this feature.
Virtual Fabrics (VF) is supported in FICON environments beginning with FOS 6.2.0e. Execute fosconfig --show to check
Virtual Fabrics if VF is enabled. Using DCFM to disable VF can result in empty message boxes resulting in confusion.