MDS9124e

[ilayy]

hi all
i have an hp bladesystem c3000 in which there is an mds9124e switch
i need to connect this switch to an external brocade switch how can i do it?
for example i have 3 servers in bay1,2 and 3 how can i map the downlink to uplink
i am totaly blocked please help

[Zygmunt Krawczyk · Accepted solution]

The only way for connecting Cisco MDS switch to Brocade switch is to set up NPIV mode in Cisco MDS.

[Johan Guldmyr]

What about interop mode? Wouldn't that work?

Or is that no longer supported?

Ilayy - do you want to merge the switches into the same fabric?

If you log on to HP SPOCK, click on "Fabric Interoperability Guides / FCoE" there is a guide there for how to merge B-series and C-series switches.

[ilayy]

all what i have is the c3000 and the MDS9124e switch installed in the blade
and i have external brocade swicth to which is connected a storage
i want to give the blade servers access to storage.
so how can i configure it?
i think the 2 swicthes should merge otherwise how it will work am i wrong? please give me some hints

[ilayy]

sorry one more question
as i know when i connect to fibre swicth by a cable they will merge automaticaly am i wrong?
my second question can i make 2 fibre switch communicate without merging them?

[Johan Guldmyr]

When you connect the cables lots of things are checked (zoning, fabric.ops in configshow, link speeds/types).

Based on what Zygmunt wrote, maybe the interop doesn't work anymore - I don't know.

I found this link about the NPV mode for Cisco 9000 SAN Switches, seems to be what Zygmunt wrote about as it has 3rd-party NPIV supported Switches in the overview (Brocade is NPIV capable).

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps5989/products_configuration_guide_chapter09186a008089f988.html

Don't forget to assign points :)

[ilayy]

thanks guys by configuring it as npv it works but i have tried to read about npv but i didn't understand it exactly i will be thankful if you can give me a hint. and why we cannot merge this 2 switches?

[Johan Guldmyr]

hi,

have you read the fabric interopability document that I mentioned?

Please do.

It may be possible to merge them, I don't know.

Was Z above that suggested it was only possible via the NPV - way.

If you were to provide some kind of error messages from the switches when you try to merge them that might have helped some.