Description

This article describes the configuration setting required on a Cisco switch, acting as Native Fibre-channel switch (FC switch), for Node Port Virtualization (NPIV).

Symptoms

The Fibre-channel forwarder (FCF) function on the QFX3500 switch, acting as FC0E gateway, is not coming up when connecting to the Cisco native FC (fibre-channel) switch.

Solution

Configuration error.

When the QFX3500 switch acts as the FCoE gateway and connects to Cisco's native FC switch (Nexus or MDS) on the FC port, the NPIV feature on the Cisco switch has to be enabled.

If the Cisco switch is not configured for NPIV mode, the FCF function on the QFX3500 may not come up and complete the Fabric login process.

Verify whether the FC port is up and has completed the fabric login:

> show fibre-channel proxy np-port detail
Fabric: ftfc, Fabric-id: 10

NP-Port: fc-0/0/0.0
State: online
Sessions: 15
LB state: ON
LB weight: 8
Ref-count: 16
Flags: UP LB C3

NP-Port: fc-0/0/1.0
State: online
Sessions: 0
LB state: OFF
LB weight: 0
Ref-count: 1
Flags: UP C3 NPIV-UNSUPPORTED


  • Online – Link is up & FC port logged in

  • still may be problems – see flags

  • Down – Physical link is down

  • Isolated – something occurred during the port’s login process preventing the link from establishing correctly.

    Examples:

    • FC ports in same fabric are attached to two autonomous SANs.

  • FC State machine not completed properly for FC port.


When you see the NPIV-UNSUPPORTED flag, it means that fabric login is not completed by the FC port.


Fixing the NPIV-UNSUPPORTED issue if the Cisco native FC switch is used

Configure the NPIV feature on the Cisco switch, for it to be compatible and work with FCoE NPIV mode on QFX FCoE gateway:

Nexus5K# conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Nexus5K(config)# feature ?
cimserver Enable/Disable cimserver
fabric-binding Enable/Disable Fabric Binding
fc-port-security Enable/Disable port-security
fcoe Enable/Disable FCoE/FC feature
fcsp Enable/Disable FC-SP
fex Enable/Disable FEX
interface-vlan Enable/Disable interface vlan
lacp Enable/Disable LACP
npiv Enable/Disable Nx port Id Virtualization (NPIV)
npv Enable/Disable FC N_port Virtualizer
port-track Enable/Disable port track feature
private-vlan Enable/Disable private-vlan
ssh Enable/Disable ssh
tacacs+ Enable/Disable tacacs+
telnet Enable/Disable telnet
udld Enable/Disable UDLD
vpc Enable/Disable VPC (Virtual Port Channel)

Nexus5K(config)# feature npiv