HP StorageWorks Fabric OS 6.x administrator guide (5697-7344, March 2008)

Fabric OS 6.x administrator guide 481
B Implementing an interoperable fabric
This appendix provides information on setting up a heterogeneous fabric that includes Fabric OS switches
and McDATA Enterprise OS switches (M-EOS).
IMPORTANT: These features are not supported at the time of the release of this document. Please check
with your sales representative or http://www.hp.com
regarding HP support of the interoperability features.
In Fabric OS 6.0, Brocade supports interoperability on new platforms, zone activation, FCR SANtegrity,
Fabric OS SANtegrity, and Coordinated Hot Code Load.
Prior to this release, you could configure switches for interoperability mode (Open Fabric 1.0), by enabling
interopmode 1, which supported non-Brocade switches, for example CISCO and QLogic. This release
introduces McDATA Open Fabric mode, interopmode 3, which replaces interopmode 1. You can configure
interoperability between McDATA and Brocade switches, but interoperability on non-Brocade switches is
no longer supported.
McDATA Open Fabric mode is intended specifically for adding Fabric OS-based products into M-EOS
fabrics that are already using Open Fabric mode. Fabrics containing only Fabric OS switches in Open
Fabric mode are not supported.
McDATA switch firmware must run version 9.6.2 to support interoperability. All Fabric OS switches must run
version 6.0.
Overview
Changing the interop mode is no longer a toggle operation. The interopmode command allows
changing between McDATA Fabric, McDATA Open Fabric, and back to Brocade Native mode. You must
issue the interopmode command on all Fabric OS switches in the fabric and all switches must have the
same mode set. All fabric mode changes can only be performed when the switch is disabled or offline and
any platform management functions must be disabled. You no longer have to perform a reboot, each
Fabric OS switch automatically reboots when you change modes.
Fabric OS 6.0 supports changing between interop modes using the following Interopmode command
options:
Interopmode 2 for McDATA Fabric mode supports M-EOS switches v9.6.2 and later running in
McDATA Fabric mode.
Interopmode 3 for McDATA Open Fabric mode supports M-EOS switches v9.6.2 and higher
running in Open Fabric mode.
Interopmode 0 for Brocade Native mode, which supports all stand alone Brocade fabrics, but no
interoperability support.
Understanding Brocade and McDATA interoperability
Determining McDATA-aware features
There are two ways that Fabric OS 6.0 determines which features are available to the switch. If a feature is
McDATA-aware (that is, aware of the McDATA environment), some actions may be possible fabric-wide. If
a feature is McDATA-unaware, some actions cannot be taken.
Features that are available fabric-wide in a McDATA-aware environment are shown in Table 103.
Table 103 McDATA-aware features
Feature Behavior
Coordinated Hot Code Load Supported McDATA Open Fabric mode and McDATA Fabric
mode.
FCR E_Port SANtegrity Supported only in McDATA Fabric mode.