Technical data

Page 9
• VM-Aware Network Automation with 8000 MAC Addresses
• VLAGs with 32 ports
New Features
VCS Fabric to FC SAN Connectivity
A VDX 2730 running NOS v2.1.1_fuj can form an Inter Fabric Link (IFL) by connecting to an EX-port on most
Brocade 8-Gbps or 16-Gbps FC platforms operating FOS v7.0.1 or later. In most common deployment
scenarios, a VDX 2730 connects directly to an FCR “backbone” fabric (an FC fabric with a switch acting as a
Fibre Channel Router, or FCR). As an alternative, the VDX 2730 can form a VCS fabric with the VDX 6730 (NOS
2.1.1), allowing multi-hop FCoE traffic originating from VDX 2730 connected blade servers to bridge to FC ports
on the VDX 6730.
The following table provides interoperability information and minimum firmware versions required for NOS and
FOS platforms.
VDX Platforms/NOS Firmware
Versions
FCPlatforms
1
/FOS Firmware Versions
FOS Firmware Version on
Switches in FC Backbone or
Edge Fabrics
VDX 2730/NOS v2.1.1_fuj or later Brocade DCX/DCX-4S/DCX8510-8/
DCX8510-4/6510/5300/5100/
VA-40FC/7800
All platforms forming an IFL connection
to a VCS fabric must be operating with
FOS v7.0.1 (or later)
Please refer to the FOS
v7.0.1 release notes for the
complete interoperability
matrix.
1
Other Brocade FC platforms support FOS v7.0.1 and FCR/Integrated Routing functionality; however, those platforms are
not supported for interoperability with VDX platforms when using FOS v7.0.1.
Edge Loop Detection (ELD)
NOS v2.1.1_fuj supports Edge Loop Detection (ELD), a protocol that detects a loop by shutting down ports
when it receives its own PDU. ELD is primarily used to detect L2 loops due to bad configuration, malformed
physical connections, and other user errors. ELD is supported only in VCS mode. ELD should NOT be treated as
a substitute for L2 loop prevention protocols such as STP, MSTP, RSTP, etc.
Configurable Tail Drop Threshold
User-configurable CoS Tail Drop Thresholds are supported in NOS v2.1.1_fuj. This feature allows you to
configure Tail Drop Threshold on a physical interface. When the configurable threshold levels for a given traffic
class (CoS) are exceeded, the packets for that traffic class get tail-dropped. Allowing user-configurable
thresholds provides the flexibility to assign more buffers to certain traffic classes over others. A traffic class
with deep buffers will encounter fewer tail drops.