Reference Guide

• Process FIP VLAN discovery requests and responses, advertisements, solicitations, FLOGI/FDISC

requests and responses, FLOGO requests and responses, keep-alive packets, and clear virtual-link

messages.

FIP Snooping in a Switch Stack

FIP snooping supports switch stacking as follows:.

• A switch stack configuration is synchronized with the standby stack unit.

• Dynamic population of the FCoE database (ENode, Session, and FCF tables) is synchronized with the

standby stack unit. The FCoE database is maintained by snooping FIP keep-alive messages.

• In case of a failover, the new master switch starts the required timers for the FCoE database tables.

Timers run only on the master stack unit.

NOTE: While technically possible to run FIP snooping and stacking concurrently, Dell Networking

recommends a SAN design utilizes two redundant FCoE network path versus stacking. This avoids a

single point of failure to the SAN and provides a guaranteed latency. The overall latency could easily

rise above desired SAN limits if a link level failure redirects traffic over the stacking backplane.

How FIP Snooping is Implemented

As soon as the Aggregator is activated in an M1000e chassis as a switch-bridge, existing VLAN-specific

and FIP snooping auto-configurations are applied. The Aggregator snoops FIP packets on VLANs enabled

for FIP snooping and allows legitimate sessions. By default, all FCoE and FIP frames are dropped unless

specifically permitted by existing FIP snooping-generated ACLs.

FIP Snooping on VLANs

FIP snooping is enabled globally on an Aggregator on all VLANs:

• FIP frames are allowed to pass through the switch on the enabled VLANs and are processed to

generate FIP snooping ACLs.

• FCoE traffic is allowed on VLANs only after a successful virtual-link initialization (fabric login FLOGI)

between an ENode and an FCF. All other FCoE traffic is dropped.

• Atleast one interface is auto-configured for FCF (FIP snooping bridge — FCF) mode on a FIP

snooping-enabled VLAN. Multiple FCF trusted interfaces are auto-configured in a VLAN.

• A maximum of eight VLANs are supported for FIP snooping on an Aggregator. FIP snooping processes

FIP packets in traffic only from the first eight incoming VLANs.

FC-MAP Value

The FC-MAP value that is applied globally by the Aggregator on all FCoE VLANs to authorize FCoE traffic

is auto-configured.

The FC-MAP value is used to check the FC-MAP value for the MAC address assigned to ENodes in

incoming FCoE frames. If the FC-MAP values does not match, FCoE frames are dropped. A session

between an ENode and an FCF is established by the switch —bridge only when the FC-MAP value on the

FCF matches the FC-MAP value on the FIP snooping bridge.

FIP Snooping