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FC Flex IO Modules
This part provides a generic, broad-level description of the operations, capabilities, and configuration commands of the Fiber
Channel (FC) Flex IO module.
FC Flex IO Module mentioned in this guide refers to FCF Port Combo Card.
Topics:
• FC Flex IO Modules
• Understanding and Working of the FC Flex IO Modules
• Data Center Bridging (DCB)
• Fibre Channel over Ethernet for FC Flex IO Modules
• NPIV Proxy Gateway for FC Flex IO Modules
FC Flex IO Modules
This part provides a generic, broad-level description of the operations, capabilities, and configuration commands of the Fiber
Channel (FC) Flex IO module.
Understanding and Working of the FC Flex IO Modules
This chapter provides a generic, broad-level description of the operations and functionality of the Fiber Channel (FC) Flex IO
module, and contains the following sections:
● FC Flex IO Modules Overview
● FC Flex IO Module Capabilities and Operations
● Guidelines for Working with FC Flex IO Modules
● Processing of Data Traffic
● Installing and Configuring the Switch
● Interconnectivity of FC Flex IO Modules with Cisco MDS Switches
FC Flex IO Modules Overview
The Fibre Channel (FC) Flex IO module is supported on FN IOM. The FN IOM switch installed with the FC Flex IO module
functions as a top-of-rack edge switch that supports converged enhanced Ethernet (CEE) traffic — Fibre Channel over
Ethernet (FCoE) for storage, Interprocess Communication (IPC) for servers, and Ethernet local area network (LAN) (IP cloud)
for data — as well as FC links to one or more storage area network (SAN) fabrics. Although the FN IOM can act as a FIP
snooping bridge (FSB) to provide FCoE transit switch capabilities, the salient and significant advantage of deploying the FC Flex
IO module is to enable more streamlined and cohesive FCoE N-port identifier virtualization (NPIV) proxy gateway functionalities.
The NPIV proxy gateway (NPG) provides FCoE-FC bridging behavior.
The FC Flex IO module offers a rich, comprehensive set of FCoE functionalities on the FX2 chassis by splitting the Ethernet and
Fibre Channel (FC) traffic at the edge of the chassis. The FC switches that are connected directly to the FC Flex IO module
provide Fibre Channel capabilities because the FC Flex IO module does not support full fabric functionalities. With the separation
of Ethernet and FC packets performed at the edge of the chassis itself, you can use the FN IOM that contains an FC Flex IO
module to connect to a SAN environment without the need for a separate ToR switch to operate as NPIV proxy gateways. The
FN IOM can function in NPIV proxy gateway mode when an FC Flex IO module is present or in the FIP snooping bridge (FSB)
mode when all the ports are Ethernet ports.
The FC Flex IO module uses the same baseboard hardware of the FN IOM and the FX2 chassis. You can insert the FC Flex IO
module into any of the optional module slots of the FN IOM and it provides four FC ports per module. If you insert only one FC
Flex IO module, four ports are supported; if you insert two FC Flex IO modules, eight ports are supported.
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