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Expected behavior from Fibre Channel services
15Fabric Interoperability: Merging Fabrics Based on C-Series and B-Series Fibre Channel Switches Application Notes
Expected behavior from Fibre Channel services
While in “Interoperability mode”, all the fibre channel services from each of the switch types
may not work the same as in Native Mode. However, the following behavior is expected in an
interoperating fabric.
■ Zoning: All zones will be done with PWWNs only. Thus each switch type will
implement zoning in its native form as if only PWWNs were used. Other types of zoning
definition are not supported.
■ FSPF: The routing of frames within the fabric is not changed by the introduction of
interoperability mode. However, note that the MDS-9000 will continue to use
src-id/dst-id/ox-id to load balance across multiple ISL links, while B-Series will use their
default src-id/dst-id, so the return route may be different from the initial route when
passing through an MDS-9000.
■ Trunking/Port-Channels: Trunking and Port-channels continue to work between
C-series switches. See Table 1 for more details.
■ Domain IDs: A switch may have to change its domain ID to the range 97-127. This is to
accommodate 32 domain address limitation followed by some vendors. If a domain ID is
changed (which can be a disruptive event to the switch), all devices attached to the switch
will need to re login to the switch. When domain IDs are changed, the switch itself will
need to reregister with the principal switch in the fabric to verify domain ID uniqueness.
— Disruptive: This is a switch wide event on B-series and hence requires disabling the
switch temporarily. So plan accordingly when changing the domain ID.
— Non-Disruptive: This event is limited to the vsan on C-series where the change is
taking place. The MDS switch can perform this action, as the domain manager process
for this vsan is restarted and not the entire switch. This still would require any devices
logged into the vsan on that switch to relogin to obtain a new FCID.