490 Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide
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Inter-fabric broadcast frames
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•To change the fabric parameters on a switch in the edge fabric, use the configure command.
Note that to access all of the fabric parameters controlled by this command, you must disable
the switch using the switchDisable command. If executed on an enabled switch, only a subset
of attributes are configurable.
•To change the fabric parameters of an EX_Port on the FC router, use the portCfgEXPort
command.
•To change the fabric parameters of a VEX_Port, then use the portCfgVEXPort command.
The backbone fabric PID mode and the edge fabric PID mode do not need to match, but the PID
mode for the EX_Port or VEX_Port and the edge fabric to which it is attached must match. You can
statically set the PID mode for the fabric by using the -p option with the portCfgEXPort command.
Use the -t option to disable the negotiate fabric parameter feature; otherwise, the PID mode is
autonegotiated. The various edge fabrics may have different PID modes.
Fabric parameter settings, namely, E_D_TOV (error-detect timeout value), R_A_TOV
(resource-allocation timeout value), and PID format, must be the same on EX_Ports or VEX_Ports
and on the fabrics to which they are connected. You can set the PID format on an EX_Port when you
configure an inter-fabric link.
The default values for E_D_TOV and R_A_TOV for an EX_Port or VEX_Port must match those values
on other Fabric OS switches. You do not need to adjust these parameters for an EX_Port or
VEX_Port unless you have adjusted them for the edge fabric.
The default values for R_A_TOV and E_D_TOV are the recommended values for all but very large
fabrics (ones requiring four or more hops) or high-latency fabrics (such as ones using long-distance
FCIP links).

Inter-fabric broadcast frames

The FC router can receive and forward broadcast frames between edge fabrics and between the
backbone fabric and edge fabrics. Many target devices and HBAs cannot handle broadcast frames.
In this case, you can set up broadcast zones to control which devices receive broadcast frames.
(See “Broadcast zones” on page 244 for information about setting up broadcast zones.)
By default, broadcast frames are not forwarded from the FC router to the edge fabrics.
NOTE
Broadcast frame forwarding is not supported in an FCR fabric with a Brocade 8000. By default,
broadcast frame forwarding is disabled on an FC router. If your edge fabric includes a Brocade 8000,
do not enable broadcast frame forwarding on the FC router, because this can degrade FCR
performance when there is excessive broadcast traffic.

Displaying the current broadcast configuration

1. Log in to the FC router as admin.
2. Type the following command:
fcr:admin> fcrbcastconfig --show
This command displays only the FIDs that have the broadcast frame option enabled. The FIDs
that are not listed have the broadcast frame option disabled.