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isl between a brocade ds5000b and a cisco 9134
we currently have two data centers in diffent parts of our building, but have patch panels connecting them. in one data center we have a clarrion cx3-20 that servers in the other data center need to access. My question is should we make a separate vsan on the cisco (it is connected to a cx4 also) for the isl's and is their any thing I need to check before connecting the isl's.
healyj
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December 12th, 2017 07:00
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Allen Ward
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April 6th, 2010 13:00
How long a run is this going to be?
Also, you will want to confirm firmware levels on your switches and the interoperability mode configured on the 5300. I'm not sure what you need set on the Cisco as I've never worked with them, but with a current firmware on the 5300 I believe you will have to have it running in Interop mode 3. PLEASE NOTE that changing the interop mode is very disruptive to the switch.
All other things being accounted for you just want to make sure that your switch ports are configured to allow E-type connections and that your Domain IDs aren't going to conflict.
RRR
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April 6th, 2010 23:00
I'd recommend a different VSAN indeed to keep the Brocade part separated as much as you can from your production part on the Cisco side. If you need hosts on the Brocade to connect to Cisco and vise versa, you need an IVR capable switch on the Cisco side or some sort of MP7500 on the Brocade side. This way you can avoid having to adjust the Cisco to interop mode, which indeed can be disruptive.
If you cannot implement IVR or you simply don't have a Cisco 92xx or Brocade MP7500 or something switch, you need to set the interop mode and you need to be aware that setting this can be disruptive.
dynamox
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April 7th, 2010 04:00
ditto to what the guys said, take a look at these links as well.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/storage/san_switches/mds9000/interoperability/guide/ICG_lim.html
http://www.ict-partner.net/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/mds9000/interoperability/matrix/Matrix.pdf
jconnectria
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April 7th, 2010 08:00
thanks for the info. the run is only about 75 ft, the cisco switch currently has connections to a brocade 4424 blade (set in gateway mode), so I think it is alright. the brocade 5000b inop mode is disabled, I was not sure if changing it would be distrutive.
dynamox
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April 8th, 2010 13:00
it is very disruptive as the switch will need to be disabled prior to changing the mode, with redundant fabric it should be less disruptive.
Allen Ward
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April 8th, 2010 13:00
No problem...
I'm not sure if you can use your current connection to a Brocade in gateway mode as an indicator though. I haven't used this mode on any switches yet, but my understanding from what I've read (although not recently) is that this does not create an ISL to the Cisco... it just a sort of "passthrough" that uses NPIV on the Cisco to make the SAN think all the blades have individual connections directly to the Cisco. This may not follow the same rules as interoperability to allow a true ISL between fabrics (in gateway mode I don't think the brocade is actually "participating" in the fabric).
Hopefully someone else out there has more practical experience with blade chassis switches (or any switch) in gateway mode.