Comments on: SAN Port Channels from Nexus 5010 to MDS 9134

By: Geir

Geir — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 09:12:15 +0000

I am thinking in the same line as Kumar here, but will use a set of 5596UP as dedicated “SAN switches” aggregating SAN port channels from end-of-row 5596UP´s and connecting them to our Hitachi SAN, any thing to consider or limitations? We are moving from a Brocade SAN network to FCoE, Nexus etc when moving to a new office later this year, so it seams nice to skip MDS and just use an extra set of 5596UP as we will have 12 of as end-of-row switches, HP blade chassis with Nexus B22 FEX

By: Kumar

Kumar — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 15:55:51 +0000

Scott – with Nexus 5Ks supporting FC ports, is there even a need to use MDS? Could you use the same N5k switch for both your FC and ethernet traffic. I remember reading that for FC traffic you have to run the 5k in FC-SW mode. Has this changed?

By: slowe

slowe — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 05:54:07 +0000

Khuanchai, have a look at this article and see if it doesn’t provide you with the information you need:

http://blog.scottlowe.org/2010/12/15/fcoe-through-a-nexus-to-a-mds-attached-storage-array/

Good luck!

By: khuanchai

khuanchai — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 04:01:21 +0000

Hello.
Thank you for your previosly answer. i got another question. i have nexus 5010 connect with existing configuration VMware host via FCOE port. my question is about, if existing configuration of vmware require multi vlan in one interface. how i can configuration FCOE on nexus to support multi vlan in a FCOE interface

By: slowe

slowe — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:53:14 +0000

Jciarlette, it sounds to me like there are still some differences between the port configurations. I can’t tell you exactly what without more information, so I would just recommend you check the current trunking status, port speed, VSAN membership, allowed VSANs, and other configurations between the two ports. Good luck!

Darren, I haven’t yet personally tested that configuration, although I think that a fellow EMC’er did over at the Brass Tacks blog:

http://brasstacksblog.typepad.com/brass-tacks/2010/12/creating-san-port-channels-when-using-npv-mode-on-nexus-5k.html

Thanks for the heads-up on the connectivity issues you uncovered—I’m sure that other readers will find this very useful!

By: Darren Ramsey

Darren Ramsey — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:03:26 +0000

Scott,

Good info here on your site. Have you looked/tested the N5K in NPV mode with san-port-channel trunking (TNP->TF) to a MDS? NPIV and fport-channel-trunk features must be enabled on the MDS, and NPV on the N5K.

We have been running this config since NX-OS 4.2 released with good results. However we did find several issues that you might want to be aware of. We tested the san-port-channel with IOMETER and simulated failed san PO uplinks. We ran into a 20 second IO loss due to CSCtd54245 that has since been fixed. We also ran into CSCti57443 on the FEX uplink between our 2232 and N5K. Now MPIO/PPVE will compensate for both of these, but not everyone is running PPVE on ESX.

—————————————————————
corp-nex1# sho runn int san1

!Command: show running-config interface san-port-channel 1
!Time: Thu Jan 6 10:02:31 2011

version 4.2(1)N2(1)

interface san-port-channel 1
channel mode active
switchport mode NP
switchport description MDS-9506-03
switchport trunk mode on
switchport trunk allowed vsan 121
switchport trunk allowed vsan add 131
switchport trunk allowed vsan add 141

corp-nex1# sho int san1
san-port-channel 1 is trunking
Port description is MDS-9506-03
Hardware is Fibre Channel
Port WWN is 24:01:00:05:9b:1e:00:00
Admin port mode is NP, trunk mode is on
snmp link state traps are enabled
Port mode is TNP
Port vsan is 1
Speed is 24 Gbps
Trunk vsans (admin allowed and active) (121,131,141)
Trunk vsans (up) (121,131,141)
Trunk vsans (isolated) ()
Trunk vsans (initializing) ()
5 minute input rate 10145048 bits/sec, 1268131 bytes/sec, 1568 frames/sec
5 minute output rate 30105328 bits/sec, 3763166 bytes/sec, 2369 frames/sec
10381843246 frames input, 15075247432540 bytes
20 discards, 0 errors
0 CRC, 0 unknown class
0 too long, 0 too short
7736628204 frames output, 11765023489340 bytes
0 discards, 92 errors
0 input OLS, 0 LRR, 0 NOS, 0 loop inits
0 output OLS, 0 LRR, 0 NOS, 0 loop inits
last clearing of “show interface” counters never
Member[1] : fc2/1
Member[2] : fc2/2
Member[3] : fc2/3
Interface last changed at Mon Jun 21 11:44:46 2010

By: jciarlette

jciarlette — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:23:52 +0000

I am having an issue trying to add a port to the port channel. I get “port not compatible: [Port allowed vsan list]” I have trunking on, a single vsan in list, and both ports i am trying to add are allowing same vsan. Help!!! please.

By: slowe

slowe — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:20:52 +0000

Khuanchai, the “sho int port-channel X” (or “show int san-port-channel X”) commands will tell you if the SAN port channel is up or not. As for mapping hosts to storage, that involves both zoning (on the SAN switches) as well as storage presentation (on the array). These articles should help with the SAN portion:

http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/08/24/new-users-guide-to-configuring-cisco-mds-zones-via-cli/

http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/10/20/new-users-guide-to-managing-cisco-mds-zones-via-cli/

http://blog.scottlowe.org/2010/12/08/using-device-aliases-on-a-cisco-mds/

Good luck!

By: khuanchai

khuanchai — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 06:53:47 +0000

Hello, I have done to port channel all vsan allow by
trunking mode form MDS 9124 to Nexus 5010 (the storage connect to
MDS9124, Host connect to Nexus 5010 via FCOE) how i can check on
Nexus that the port channel configuration working poperly and also
how can i map the host that connect on Nexus 5010 to storage that
connect on MDS 9124 please light me . Thank you,

By: Darryl

Darryl — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:25:06 +0000

Thanks for keeping the information flowing…