How to configure FCIP tunnel between two Brocade 7800 using CLI

How to configure FCIP tunnel between two Brocade 7800 using CLI

 

In the example below, we assume that the TCP/IP network link between site A and site B is already configured and ready to go. The Brocade 7800 comes with multiple (2 or 6) GigE ports, depending on the configuration you purchase. Also, you could use optical connector or RJ45 copper connector (maximum 2) for connecting the Brocade 7800 to the TCP/IP network. Check the hardware reference manual for more details on physical ports and connectivity details.

 

The end result of this exercise will be a single fabric (merged fabric) across site A and site B consisting of 2 Brocade 7800 fibre switches. If you do not want the fabrics to merge, ie maintain two distinct fabrics, but give selective access to devices in the second fabric, then what you need is FC-FC routing. FC-FC routing will be published in the future.

 

In this example, we will be using port 16 (ge0) as the VE port and the physical port on each side. You will need to get the IP address and the net mask details from your network team, for each site. In this example we use

Site A IP address: 192.168.10.14/255.255.255.0

Site B IP address:192.168.10.67/255.255.255.0

 

1.  Login to the Brocade 7800 switch in site A (SiteA_7800)

 

2.  The first step is to disable the VE ports on the Brocade 7800s. This is to control the merging of the fabric, will enable them when the configuration is completed.

 

SiteA_7800> portdisable 16

 

3.  Assign IP address and subnet mask to port ge0

 

SiteA_7800> portcfg ipif ge0 create 192.168.10.14 255.255.255.0 1500

 

4.  Configure the tunnel to site B from site A with a committed rate of 100Mbit/sec. Note the order of the Ips below (site B first)

 

SiteA_7800>portcfg fciptunnel 16 create 192.168.10.67 192.168.10.14 100000

 

5.  Login to the Brocade 7800 switch at site B (SiteB_7800)

 

6.  Disable the VE port 16 on the Brocade 7800

 

SiteB_7800>portdisable 16

 

7.  Configure the IP address for the ge0 at site B

 

portcfg ipif ge0 create 192.168.10.67 255.255.255.0 1500

 

8.  At this stage, you will be able to ping the IP address at Site A, assuming the network link is configured and network cables are plugged in at both sites.

 

SiteB_7800>portcmd –ping ge0 –s 192.168.10.67 –d 192.168.10.14

 

If you see reply from SiteA, your network link is configured and working well, if not, back to the networks team.

 

9.  At SiteB, configure the tunnel for VE port 16 to connect to the Brocade 7800 switch at siteA

 

portcfg fciptunnel 16 create 192.168.10.14 192.168.10.67 100000

 

10.  Now we are ready to enable the VE ports, the fabrics will merge after executing the below commands. At this point, the rules to connect a new switch to an existing fabric applies. For example, if both switches have defined zone configurations that are different, zone conflict error will occur

 

SiteB>portenable 16

SiteA>portenable 16

 

11.  Confirm that the VE port 16 is online and connected to the switch at siteB

 

SiteA>switchshow|grep VE

 

12.  Verify fabric availability

 

SiteA>fabricshow

 

13.  Check the FCIP configuration parameters

 

SiteA>portshow fcipcircuit all

 

At this point, the FCIP configuration is complete. You may choose to configure additional GigE ports or additional circuits as per the design requirements

 

How to expand striped meta device on EMC symmetrix VMAX using symcli

How to expand striped meta device on EMC symmetrix VMAX using symcli

Expanding a concatenated meta device on an EMC Symmetrix VMAX using symcli is a straight forward procedure. Click here for the procedure. However, the expansion of striped meta is rather complicated. The procedure includes creating a new meta device of equal size and construct (same number of LUNs, hyper size) and using that as a BCV device as a temporary staging area.

 

A RAID-5 BCV device (BCV+R-5) can be used as a staging area. If you are running a really old version of Enginuity version, then RAID-5 BCV may not be supported, in this case use way mirror BCV.

 

Step by step striped meta expansion procedure using symcli

 

The device to expand – 0065 is 180GB and is striped across 3*60GB hypers

 

 1. Create a new striped meta device of the same capacity as the original meta device (180GB) using 3*60GB hypers - 017d,017e and 017f. This will be used as a temporary staging area for expansion

 

symconfigure -sid <xxx> -cmd “form meta from device 017d, config=striped, stripe_size=1 cyl; add dev 017e:017f to meta 017d;” prep

 

Once the prepare command completes successfully, commit the changes

 

symconfigure -sid <xxx> -cmd “form meta from device 017d, config=striped, stripe_size=1 cyl; add dev 017e:017f to meta 017d;” comm

 

 2.  Set the attribute of the new device to BCV RAID-5

 

symconfigure -sid <xxx> -cmd “convert dev 017d to BCV+R-5;” prep

 

Once the prepare command completes without errors, commit changes

 

symconfigure -sid <xxx> -cmd “convert dev 017d to BCV+R-5;” comm

 

 3.  Expand the meta device. The expansion of striped meta requires “n” number of hypers, where “n” is the number of columns in the stripe. For example, if you are expanding a striped meta which has 5 members (striped across 5 hypers), then you will need 5 new hypers. The device we are using in this example, 0065, is currently striped across 3 devices, therefore we need 3 new hypers 0187,0188 and 0189.
 

symconfigure -sid <xxx> -cmd “add dev 0187:0189 to meta 0065,protect_data=TRUE,bcv_meta_head=017d” prep

 

Once the prepare command completes without errors, commit changes

 

symconfigure -sid <xxx> -cmd “add dev 0187:0189 to meta 0065,protect_data=TRUE,bcv_meta_head=017d” comm

 

Wait for the process to complete and that’s it, all done!

 

How to expand a concatenated meta device on EMC Symmetrix VMAX using symcli

A meta device is a Symmetrix mechanism for creating a device larger than the current maximum hyper volume size (262668 cylinders or 240GB on EMC Symmetrix VMAX). There are two types of meta devices – concatenated or striped.

For virtual provisioned environment, concatenated meta volumes are recommended by EMC, striped meta is not recommended.

Given below are the steps to create a concatenated meta device and expand the meta device on an EMC symmetrix VMAX system using symcli

In this example, we are using hypers  0010, 0011 and 0012 for creating the meta and 0013 to expand the already available meta.

 To form the meta for the first time, the meta head (in this case 0010) should not be mapped to any front end ports. If it is mapped, unmap the hyper before proceeding. Also, the meta tails (0011 and 0012) should not be attached to any FAs (unmapped) and the data will be lost.

symconfigure –cmd “form meta from device 0010, config=concatenated; add dev 0011:0012 to meta 0010;” prep

Once the above command completes successfully, commit the changes

symconfigure –cmd “form meta from device 0010, config=concatenated; add dev 0011:0012 to meta 0010;” comm

To add hyper 0013 to already formed meta device 0010 (meta head), execute the following command

symconfigure –cmd “ add dev 0013 to meta 0010;” prep

Once the above command completes successfully, commit the changes

symconfigure –cmd “ add dev 0013 to meta 0010;” comm

Expanding striped meta device is bit more complicated, click here for procedure

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