Fabric OS Administrator's Guide v7.0.0 (53-1002148-02, June 2011)
Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide 379
53-1002148-02
10G licensing
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10G licensing
The 10 Gbps FCIP/Fibre Channel license (10G license) enables the following features:
• 10 Gbps access on the 16 Gbps FC ports on the Brocade 6510 switch, and the FC16-32 and
FC16-48 port blades. This feature is new in the Fabric OS v7.0.0 release.
• The two 10GbE ports on the FX8-24 extension blade. Before the Fabric OS v7.0.0 release, this
feature was enabled by the 10 GbE license.
This 10G license is applied as a slot-based license on the FC16-32 and FC16-48 port blades and
on the FX8-24 extension blade; generic rules for adding slot-based licenses apply, as described in
“Slot-based licensing” on page 377. When this license is applied to the Brocade 6510 switch, it is
applied to the whole chassis.
Whether you have a bladed (DCX, DCX-4S, DCX 8510-8, or DCX 8510-4) platform or nonbladed
(Brocade 6510) switch, you add the 10G license to the chassis using the LicenseAdd command, as
for any license.
For the bladed platforms, you can either allow automatic license assignment, or choose the blades
you want the licences assigned to manually, as for any slot-based license. Automatic assignment is
done sequentially by slot number, beginning with the lowest numbered slot with an enabled blade
that supports this feature (FX8-24, FC16-32, or FC16-48 blade), and that does not already have the
license applied. If the automatic license assignment does not match your needs, you can use the
licenseSlotCfg --remove and licenseSlotCfg --add commands to remove the license manually from a
slot and assign it to a different slot with an FX8-24, FC16-32, or FC16-48 blade.
The same multiple slot-based 10G license can be applied to a mixture of 16 Gbps blades and
FX8-24 blades. For example, if you have a 10G license for two slot capacity, and you have an
FX8-24 blade in one slot and a FC16-48 blade in a second slot, then the same license can activate
the 10GE ports on the FX8-24 blade and enable 10 Gbps operation on the 10G FC ports on the
FC16-48 blade.
After applying a 10G license to the Brocade 6510 chassis or to a 16 Gbps FC blade, you must also
configure the port octet (portCfgOctetSpeedCombo command) with the correct port octet speed
group and configure each port to operate at 10 Gbps (portCfgSpeed command). It is necessary to
configure the port octet because only certain combinations of port speeds are allowed within the
port octet. No license is required for the octet group. If the speed configuration operation succeeds
and a 10G-capable SFP is inserted in the port connector, the port will allow operation at 10Gbps
when the link becomes active at that speed.
NOTE
10 Gbps FC capability is restricted to the ports in the first port octet group on each blade or chassis
to which the license is applied.
Before removing a 10 Gbps license from an entire platform (licenseRemove command) or from a
specific blade (licenseSlotCfg --remove command), you must first deconfigure all affected FC ports
to no longer operate at 10Gbps.
NOTE
An FC port that is operating at 10G FC speed on a 16G FC blade or 16G FC switch does not need an
Extended Fabrics license to be used for FC long distance connectivity.
FC ports licensed and configured to operate at 10 Gbps on a Brocade 6510 switch or 16 Gbps FC
port blade cannot interoperate with 10 Gbps ports on an FC10-6 port blade or with 10 Gbps FC ports
on the Mc-6140 platform. The new FC ports use different protocols and physical connections.