Brocade 6.2 FOS opinions

[Todd Bowden]

To all,

Im trying to get some opinions on the new 6.2.x FOS from Brocade and what that means to customers. From what I have experienced, I have multiple fabrics, like probably most customers. I have currently upgraded to 6.2.0b and found that the "Zone Admin" now only shows you the switch you are on. Is this ok to those that manage multiple fabrics? Brocade has moved some of its features that you could do from the switch to what is called Data Center Fabric Mangager Professional (DCFM). This software comes with every switch. What I really think is that Brocade is going to push everyone to purchase DCFM Enterprise (about $44k list) to manage all your fabrics. Dont get me wrong, I think its a great tool to have all your switches and fabrics sending all the events to one browser and to also be able to see all your switches when creating aliases and zones. Will this push customers to hold off on moving to 6.2.x? I can tell you from experience, that it will be painful to have to login to individual switches to create aliases, zones and configs.

Thanks,

Todd

[Sivakumar MJ._1 · Accepted solution]

As the Era is marked for Virtualization, Brocade is no different customer.

The Brocade(FOS) 6.2 Virtual Fabrics feature enables a physical SAN switch to be partitioned into multiple Logical Switches.

Each Logical Switcehs are assigned to a separate Logical Fabric.

When we get new features, we need to adapt to the features. If the features are going to be cost worthy then adopting to it is accepteble.

If Brocade convence the customers to move ahead, then the SAN admins. has to adopt to the pain.

[RM782]

Hi Todd

we had issues with a firmware upgrade and found that the zone admin tab disapeared from the gui, although we were informed it was a bug in the 6.1.0c firmware. But we were sent this file from Brocade which shows what is moving from the standard switch config into DCFM.

[Tux_1]

Yes.. there are lot of changes in 6.2.x FOS, most of the tabs / options are moved from normal webtools to FM.

[Tux_1]

Suggest you chk for release notes...

[Todd Bowden]

Thanks to all that submitted your comments. I understand about change. The problem I have is the DCFM Enterprise is $44k list, plus maintenance and support fees as well. That is pretty darn steep if you ask me. I also understand that it can be logically partitioned into smaller switches, but the DCFM that comes with the switch can only manage one Fabric at a time.

Thank you all for your input.