Dell MXL 10/40GbE FC Flex IO Modules

FC Flex IO Modules

This part provides a generic, broad-level description of the operations, capabilities, and configuration

commands of the Fiber Channel (FC) Flex IO module.

This part provides a generic, broad-level description of the operations, capabilities, and configuration

commands of the Fiber Channel (FC) Flex IO module.

This chapter provides a generic, broad-level description of the operations and functionality of the Fiber

Channel (FC) Flex IO module, and contains the following sections:

•FC Flex IO Modules Overview

•FC Flex IO Module Capabilities and Operations

•Guidelines for Working with FC Flex IO Modules

•Processing of Data Traffic

•Installing and Configuring the Switch

•Interconnectivity of FC Flex IO Modules with Cisco MDS Switches

The Fibre Channel (FC) Flex IO module is supported on MXL 10/40GbE Switch and M I/O Aggregator

(IOA). The MXL or IOA switch installed with the FC Flex IO module functions as a top-of-rack edge switch

that supports converged enhanced Ethernet (CEE) traffic — Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) for

storage, Interprocess Communication (IPC) for servers, and Ethernet local area network (LAN) (IP cloud)

for data — as well as FC links to one or more storage area network (SAN) fabrics. Although the MXL

10/40GbE Switch and the I/O Aggregator can act as a FIP snooping bridge (FSB) to provide FCoE transit

switch capabilities, the salient and significant advantage of deploying the FC Flex IO module is to enable

more streamlined and cohesive FCoE N-port identifier virtualization (NPIV) proxy gateway functionalities.

The NPIV proxy gateway (NPG) provides FCoE-FC bridging behavior.

The FC Flex IO module offers a rich, comprehensive set of FCoE functionalities on the M1000e chassis by

splitting the Ethernet and Fibre Channel (FC) traffic at the edge of the chassis. The FC switches that are

connected directly to the FC Flex IO module provide Fibre Channel capabilities because the FC Flex IO

module does not support full fabric functionalities. With the separation of Ethernet and FC packets

performed at the edge of the chassis itself, you can use the MXL 10/40GbE Switch or the Aggregator that

contains an FC Flex IO module to connect to a SAN environment without the need for a separate ToR

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