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anyone using FCoE?
Is there anyone out there using a CX4 with FCoE ports? And if you are would you be willing to share your setup/environment and experience?
In our environment we are running a CX4-480 that is both FC and FCoE attached to 2 Cisco Nexus 5020 switches. We are also running Dell PowerEdge R710 servers, which have QLogic QLE8152 CNA cards in them. These servers run VMware ESXi 4.1U1. When we zone the hosts to the storage over the Clariion's FCoE ports we see a ton of discards and rx pauses on the Nexus ports the Clariion is connected to. But when we zone the hosts to the Clariion's FC ports we don't have any issues.
We do have a case open with EMC support, as well as VMware, Cisco and QLogic. I wanted to see if anyone has had similar problems, or has a similar environment.
Thanks,
Don
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Posted May 2nd, 2011 16:00
Hi Don, sorry to hear you are having a hard time. Our test environment included CX-4s during qualification and we did not notice the issue you are referring to. We documented the steps we used to configure the Nexus 5000s in the FCoE Tech Book but it sounds like you are already well past the configuration stage. Would it be possible for you to share the EMC case number with me? You can email me directly if you'd prefer, erik.smith@emc.com
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Posted May 9th, 2011 12:00
I am not using FCoE now but I will be soon. Our setup is similiar to yours.
CX4-120 that will be hooked to a Nexus 7000. Ours are Dell R610's running ESX 4.1U1. It's not scheduled to go live for another month yet (the FCoE cards for the SAN were a sticking point with my manager). I will keep this in mind and see if we also experience any issues.
Peace
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Posted May 9th, 2011 14:00
Br sure to check the EMC Configuration Matrix - last I looked (abouit three weeks ago) the Nexus 7xxx is not supported, only the 5xxx and 3xxx.
glen
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Posted May 9th, 2011 22:00
We are in the process of qualifying the Nexus 7000 now and it looks good so far. It will be added to the ESM sometime within the next few months.
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Posted May 26th, 2011 06:00
We are running FCoE from a CX4-480 to Cisco 5Ks and 6120s with no issues using the Cisco UCS M81KR virtual interface cards. We did have some issues when using QLogic CNAs in our IBM servers, however, and switched them to using NFS access instead of block access. No problems with the Cisco UCS blades with the M81KRs though.
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Posted June 7th, 2011 02:00
Hello everyone,
We want to also imlement FCoE on our CX4-120, currently we have it connected vi FC to brocade FC switches. My concern is that we have Blade Networks G8124 switches that are FCoE capable, will the CX4 work with that switch?
Cant seem to find anything to say yes or no, there is an ocean of information and I'm in a row boat. Also if you can just guide me to the configuration documentation so I can test all that, assuming our switches are supported.
Thanks,
Omar
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Posted June 7th, 2011 04:00
in FCoE environments host connectivity is FCoE from host to the Unified switch (as Cisco calls it). From this unified switch (could be Nexus) you simply attach your storage array to the FC only ports and your LAN environment to the LAN only ports. We have CX4's attached to Cisco UCS and it's working fine
So you'd need FC ports for your storage and eth ports for your LAN connectivity. From your FCoE switch to your hosts will be FCoE traffic.
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Posted June 7th, 2011 05:00
you could also connect your MDS to Nexus so your arrays could still be connected to FC switch while both FC and FCOE clients could utilize it.
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Posted June 7th, 2011 07:00
indeed
ErikS1
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Posted May 2nd, 2011 16:00
Don, are you using twinax between the CX-4 and the Nexus?