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Does the Gen9 536FLB 2-Port adapter have FCoE support?

 
chuckk281
Trusted Contributor

Does the Gen9 536FLB 2-Port adapter have FCoE support?

A problem being faced by Esa:

 

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Hi all

We have one customer with c7000 full of BL460c Gen9 servers with 536FLB adapters

Virtual Connect FlexFabric 20/40 F8 modules on bay 1 and 2

3Par StoreServ SAN Array as direct connected to FlexFabric module

 

They are not able to see 3PAR disk and 3PAR does not see any WWNs

 

Question:

Is 536FLB  a valid FCoE adapter at all??

 

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Input from Eirik:

 

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Yes, but you need to enable the FC portion of the adapter.

 

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2034702

 

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And from Dan:

 

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Esa, trust what Eirik sent you.

 

It’s what I have been sending people for 14 months now based on not only the 536FLB Adapter but also the 534FLB Adapter on Gen8 blades.

 

The way it works with FC (and FCoE) is that you won’t see any WWNs show up on your Brocade or 3PAR until the FC Port is properly initialized and a FC Login occurs (called a FLOGI).

There are 2 main things that will initialize the port.

  1. The driver in the OS loading and scanning for LUNs.
  2. Enabling the FC BIOS on the Card during POST.

Note: This is no different on FCoE CNAs than it has been on FC HBAs for a decade.  I did this as a customer 7 years ago with Rackmounts and Windows and EMC Storage.

 

Because of the design of the Broadcom (now Qlogic) cards, they show up in VMware more like a Software FCoE adapter rather than a Hardware one.

VMware calls this a “Dependent” Adapter, as in its dependent on the OS to make it work (but still does full FCoE offload in the CNA).

The Emulex 553/554 Adapters we all grew up on was an “Independent” adapter, which means there was no OS side config that was needed for it to show up.

 

The OS Side config will expose the vmhba function you are looking for (VC/OneView already configured it like you said, but its hidden in the OS), which then initializes the FCoE driver, which then causes a FLOGI to the fabric which is what makes the WWN show up on your Brocade or 3PAR in the list of unconfigured WWNs.

 

Eirik sent you the VMware KB explaining the steps

In your case, I would follow the VMware KB since its fairly simple and I know it works.

 

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Comments?

 

1 REPLY 1
msh_it
Regular Advisor

Re: Does the Gen9 536FLB 2-Port adapter have FCoE support?

I have seen this issue only with ESXi 5.5 so far, Eirik gave the exact solution.

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msh_it | UAE | AbuDhabi

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