HP StorageWorks Fabric Interoperability: Merging Fabrics Based on M-series and B-series Fibre Channel Switches Application Notes (AA-RUQQL-TE, November 2009)

Table 13 Switch connection when the M-series switch has an incorrect peer secret for the B-series
switch
M-series Authentication Policy
setting: Off
M-series Authentication Policy
setting: On
B-series Authentication Policy
setting
Yes
2
No
1
Passive
Yes
3
No
1
Active
Yes
3
No
1
On
Yes
2
No
1
Off
1
E_Port does not connect (Authentication Rejected). When the B-series switch generates the reject, it disables the B-series port.
When the M-series switch generates the reject, it enters an invalid attachment state.
2
Connected without authentication (Fabric builds normally).
3
Connected with one-way (B-series) authentication (Fabric builds normally).
If the same secret is used on both the B-series switch and the M-series switch, it will be treated as an
incorrect secret.
Authentication unaware switches
An M-series switch becomes an authentication unaware switch when it does not have the authentication
feature keys enabled (specifically the SANtegrity feature key). A B-series switch becomes an
authentication unaware switch when the authentication is configured to Off. (See the previous section
for a description of B-series switch authentication Off conditions.) The effects on authentication when
the M-series switch does not have the feature keys enabled is discussed in this section.
Table 14 lists authentication policy for B-series switches connected to an authentication unaware
M-series switch.
Table 14 B-series connection to an authentication unaware M-series switch
M-series setting: SANtegrity disabledB-series Authentication Policy setting
Yes
1
Passive
No
2
Active
No
2
On
Yes
1
Off
1
Connected without authentication (Fabric builds normally).
2
E_Port does not connect (Authentication Rejected). When the B-series switch generates the reject, it disables the B-series port.
When the M-series switch generates the reject, it goes to an invalid attachment state.
Because the M-series switch does not have authentication enabled, an authenticated connection is
never made. However, the E_Port is established when the B-series switch is configured in Passive or
Off states. If the B-series switch is configured as On or Passive, the connection fails because these
states require the authentication of the E_Ports to respond to authentication requests. If the B-series
switch is set to Passive or Off, the switches never exchange authentication frames and therefore,
connect as normal E_Ports.
HP StorageWorks Fabric Interoperability: Merging Fabrics Based on M-series and B-series Fibre
Channel Switches Application Notes 27