464 Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide
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Setting up the FC-FC routing service
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All EX_Ports or VEX_Ports connected to an edge fabric use the same xlate domain ID number for an
imported edge fabric; this value persists across switch reboots and fabric reconfigurations.
If you lose connectivity to the edge fabric because of link failures or the IFL being disabled, xlate
domains remain visible. This prevents unnecessary fabric disruptions caused by xlate domains
repeatedly going offline and online due to corresponding IFL failures. To remove the xlate domain
from the backbone, disable all EX_Ports or VEX_Ports through which the xlate domain was created.
The combination of front domains and xlate domains allows routing around path failures, including
path failures through the routers. The multiple paths to an xlate domain provide additional
bandwidth and redundancy.
There are some differences in how the xlate domain is presented in the backbone fabric. The
backbone xlate domains are topologically connected to FC routers and participate in FC-FC routing
protocol in the backbone fabric. Front domains are not needed in the backbone fabric. As in the
case of an xlate domain in an edge fabric, backbone fabric xlate domains provide additional
bandwidth and redundancy by being able to present themselves as connected to single or multiple
FC routers with each FC router capable of connecting multiple IFLs to edge fabrics.
Use the fcrXlateConfig command to display or assign a preferred domain ID to a translate domain
or, in some scenarios, to prevent the creation of an unnecessary xlate domain. See the Fabric OS
Command Reference for more details about this command.

Setting up the FC-FC routing service

To set up the FC-FC Routing Service, perform the following tasks in the order listed:
•Verify that you have the proper setup for FC-FC routing. (See “Verifying the setup for FC-FC
routing” on page 464.)
•Assign backbone fabric IDs. (See “Backbone fabric IDs” on page 466.)
•Configure FCIP tunnels if you are connecting Fibre Channel SANs over IP-based networks. (See
“FCIP tunnel configuration” on page 467.)
•Configure IFLs for edge and backbone fabric connection. (See “Inter-fabric link configuration”
on page 468.)
•Modify port cost for EX_Ports, if you want to change from the default settings. (See “FC Router
port cost configuration” on page 471.)
•Configure trunking on EX_Ports that are connected to the same edge fabric. (See “EX_Port
frame trunking configuration” on page 474.)
•Configure LSAN zones to enable communication between devices in different fabrics. (See
“LSAN zone configuration” on page 477.)
See Chapter 3, “Performing Advanced Configuration Tasks,” for more details about configuration
options for Brocade directors.

Verifying the setup for FC-FC routing

Before configuring a fabric to connect to another fabric, you must perform the following verification
checks on the FC router.