Brocade Access Gateway Administrator's Guide Supporting Fabric OS v7.0.0 (53-1002156-01, April 2011)

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide 5

53-1002156-01

Access Gateway port types

Access Gateway differs from a typical fabric switch because it is not a switch; instead, it is a mode

that you enable on a switch using the ag command. After a switch is set inn Access Gateway mode,

it can connect to the fabric using node ports (N_Ports). Typically, fabric switches connect to the

Enterprise fabric using interswitch link (ISL) ports, such as E_Ports.

AG uses the following Fibre Channel (FC) ports:

• F_Port - Fabric port that connects a host, HBA, or storage device to a switch in AG mode.

• N_Port - Node port that connects a switch in AG mode to the F_Port of the fabric switch.

Comparison of Access Gateway ports to standard switch ports

Access Gateway multiplexes host connections to the fabric. It presents an F_Port to the host and an

N_Port to an Edge fabric switch. Using N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV), AG allows multiple FC

initiators to access the SAN on the same physical port. This reduces the hardware requirements

and management overhead of hosts to the SAN connections.

A fabric switch presents F_Ports (or FL_Ports) and storage devices to the host and presents

E_Ports, VE_Ports, or EX_Ports to other switches in the fabric. A fabric switch consumes SAN

resources, such as domain IDs, and participates in fabric management and zoning distribution. A

fabric switch requires more physical ports than AG to connect the same number of hosts.

Figure 3 on page 6 shows a comparison of the types of ports a switch in AG mode uses to the type

of ports that a switch uses in standard mode.

Speed Negotiation Yes

Syslog Daemon Yes

Trunking Yes**

User-Defined Roles Yes

ValueLineOptions (Static POD, DPOD) Yes

Virtual Fabrics No

Web Tools Yes

Zoning NA

1. When a switch is behaving as an AG, RBAC features in Fabric OS are available, but there

are some limitations. For more information on the limitations, refer to “Access Gateway hardware

considerations” on page 6.

2. In embedded switches, time should be updated by the server management utility.

3. You cannot enable AG mode on a switch enabled for virtual fabrics or enable virtual fabrics

on an AG switch. You can connect ports on an AG switch to virtual fabrics, however.

TABLE 1 Fabric OS components supported on Access Gateway (Continued)

Feature Support