Administrator Guide

FIP Snooping

This chapter describes about the FIP snooping concepts and configuration procedures.

Supported Modes

Standalone, PMUX, VLT

Topics:

• Fibre Channel over Ethernet

• Ensuring Robustness in a Converged Ethernet Network

• FIP Snooping on Ethernet Bridges

• How FIP Snooping is Implemented

• Configuring FIP Snooping

• Displaying FIP Snooping Information

• FIP Snooping Example

• Debugging FIP Snooping

Fibre Channel over Ethernet

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) provides a converged Ethernet network that allows the combination of

storage-area network (SAN) and LAN traffic on a Layer 2 link by encapsulating Fibre Channel data into

Ethernet frames.

FCoE works with Ethernet enhancements provided in data center bridging (DCB) to support lossless (no-

drop) SAN and LAN traffic. In addition, DCB provides flexible bandwidth sharing for different traffic types, such

as LAN and SAN, according to 802.1p priority classes of service. For more information, refer to the Data

Center Bridging (DCB) chapter.

Ensuring Robustness in a Converged

Ethernet Network

Fibre Channel networks used for SAN traffic employ switches that operate as trusted devices. End devices log

into the switch to which they are attached in order to communicate with the other end devices attached to

the Fibre Channel network. Because Fibre Channel links are point-to-point, a Fibre Channel switch controls

all storage traffic that an end device sends and receives over the network. As a result, the switch can enforce

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