[c-nsp] Cisco Nexus and HP Flexfabric

[Asbjorn Hojmark - Lists]

On Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:25:10 +0200, you wrote:

> Well, If you carefully read FC-BB-5 ver. 1.03, you may see that each
> Enode should be connected to Fibre Channel Forwarder. That is what I
> mean.

Yeah, that's exactly what you get with multi-hop FCoE from Cisco (N5K
-> N5K or N5K -> N7K). So yes, multi-hop FCoE is standardized.

You are correct, of cause, that you can't connect a N2K (or B22HP) to
'any switch' or 'any SAN'. You have to connect it to a N5K. But that's
like complaining that "the standards aren't done" when you can't use a
Cisco MDS line card in a Brocade switch. (The N2K is, in effect, a
line card of the N5K). And that has nothing to do with multi-hop FCoE.

My point was this: If you use FlexFabric, you get FCoE from the server
to the FlexFabric, but you have to run multiple cables (both Ethernet
and FC) from the chassis to the LAN and the SAN. You basically only
save the HBA. With N2K (or B22HP), you can use a single cable from the
chassis (carrying both LAN and SAN) and save both HBA, cables, and FC
ports.

-A