HP B-series Fabric OS 7.1.0c Release Notes (5697-2892, October 2013 - includes all 7.1.0x versions)

advised to check the speed setting of the neighboring switch port to determine the cause of the
speed negotiation failure.
Example output:
74 9 10 36ed40 id N8 In_Sync FC Disabled (Port Throttled)
Port Mirroring
Port Mirroring is not supported on the Brocade HP 1606 SAN Extension Switch.
Port Statistics
On the FC switch ports of 16 Gb/s switch platforms, the enc_in (number of encoding errors
inside of frames) and enc_out (number of encoding errors outside of frames) counters are not
updated when a port is operating at either 10 Gb/s or 16 Gb/s speeds. This is due to the different
encoding scheme used at 10 Gb/s and 16 Gb/s speeds when compared to 8 and 4 Gb/s speeds.
Because of this, Fabric Watch alerts and Port Fencing based on the ITW (Invalid Transmission
Word) thresholds do not function because these enc_in and enc_out counters are not incremented
when operating at either 10 Gb/s or 16 Gb/s (ITW is computed based on enc_in and enc_out
counters). Also, any CLI or GUI that displays enc_in and enc_out counters do not show these
counters incrementing when a port is operating at either 10 Gb/s or 16 Gb/s. Both enc_in and
enc_out counters contain valid information when a 16 Gb/s-based switch platform FC port is
operating at speeds other than 10 Gb/s and 16 Gb/s.
Virtual Fabrics
• When creating logical fabrics that include switches that are not virtual fabrics capable, it is
possible to have two logical switches with different FIDs in the same fabric connected through
a VF incapable switch. Extra caution should be used to verify the FIDs match for all switches
in the same Logical Fabric.
• A switch with virtual fabrics enabled may not participate in a fabric that is using Password
Database distribution or Administrative Domains. The virtual fabrics feature must be disabled
prior to deploying in a fabric using these features.
Zoning
• There is now support for up to a 2 MB zone database in a fabric with only HP DC SAN
Backbone Director/HP DC SAN Director/ HP SN8000B 8-Slot SAN Backbone Director
Switch/HP SN8000B 4-Slot SAN Director systems. The presence of any other platform in the
fabric will limit the maximum zone database to 1 MB.
NOTE: There is no enforcement by Fabric OS 7.1 to restrict users to operate within a zone
database limit and it is the responsibility of the user not to exceed this limit.
• There are limitations to zoning operations that can be performed from a Fabric OS 6.x switch
that is in the same fabric as a Fabric OS 7.0.0 or later switch if the Fabric OS 6.x switch is
not running the recommended firmware version. See “Interoperability ” (page 39) for details.
Beginning with the Fabric OS 6.2.0 release, all WWNs containing uppercase characters are
automatically converted to lowercase when associated with a zone alias, and are stored as
part of a saved configuration on a switch. For example, a WWN entered as either
AA.BB.CC.DD.EE.FF.GG.HH or aa.bb.cc.dd.ee.ff.gg.hh when associated with a zone alias
is stored as aa.bb.cc.dd.ee.ff.gg.hh on a switch operating with Fabric OS 6.2.0 or later.
This behavioral change in saved zone alias WWN members does not impact most
environments. However, in a scenario where a switch with a zone alias WWN member with
uppercase characters (saved on the switch with pre-Fabric OS 6.2.0 code) is merged with a
switch with the same alias member WWN in lowercase characters, the merge fails, since the
switches do not recognize these zoning configurations as being the same.
Important notes and recommendations 33