Brocade Fabric OS Administrator's Guide Supporting Fabric OS v6.3.0 (53-1001336-02, November 2009)

522 Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide

53-1001336-02

Internal Ethernet devices

During the switch initialization process, a new internal Ethernet device is created. The devices

created are inbd0 and inbd1. Ethernet device inbd0 is used to communicate through GE port 1 and

inbd1 is used to communicate through GE port 0. These new Ethernet interfaces are internal only

and are not accessible from outside the switch. They are used strictly for the means of

communicating IP packets between the CP and the GE port processor.

During initialization, the hardware addresses for inbd0 and inbd1 are initialized to create a

hardware address that is unique for each Ethernet interface. After the Ethernet device is initialized

it is enabled for use. At this point the Ethernet device can start sending and receiving Ethernet

frames.

FIGURE 82 Inband Management process

The NAT IP table is loaded and automatically configured on startup.The source address NAT is

configured on the inband management interfaces to use the address of the CP management

interface (eth0). The switch automatically uses the IP address of the CP management interface for

the source address NAT for the new inband management interfaces, so no additional configuration

will be required.

IP address and routing management

The CP and GE port processor Ethernet interfaces must have IP addresses associated with them.

By default, there will be no IP addresses associated with these new Ethernet interfaces. To manage

the IP addresses for the CP and GE port processor Ethernet interfaces, use the portCfg

inbandmgmt command on the CP.

Specifying the portCfg inbandmgmt command with the

routeadd or routedel options adds and

deletes route entries to and from the CP and the GE port processor routing tables. IP addresses

must be configured for both devices prior to configuring any routes. When configuring the routes for

the CP, the GE port processor inband device address for that GE port is used instead of the