Brocade MP8000 - 10Gbit switches

[Angus]

As far as I'm aware SFP's do not negotiate..

If you want 1 gig you use 1 gig SFP.. if you want 10 use 10.. both ends..

Someone might correct me but that's my understanding..

 

[Curdie]

I see. Is it possible that I could use a Brocade 1 gigabit transceiver on my MP8000 to make this work, or is it likely to be 10 gigabit only?

 

[Curdie]

Maybe a better question is... Is there a 1 gig SFP that works in this switch? Thanks for the tips, by the way. And for the thread and this forum in general. Super helpful to get practical info from people who actually use this gear. <3.

 

[bds1904]

http://www.fiberstore.com/new-broca...se-tx-sfp-transceiver-module-p-23681.htmlhtml

For $18 it is worth a try.

 

[ofoptics]

Is the 1G SFP can work in the SFP+ ports in the switch MP8000? I think it will work in theory but still need to practice.

 

[Chuckleb]

You might be able to log in and force the port to negotiate at the speed you need.

 

[vanfawx]

That part does make it interesting - that switch has everything you need to attach native FC storage arrays to servers with 10GbE CNA's with FCoE.

Makes me think you could do some rather odd all-in-one type configs with it. Pass through a FC HBA to a NAS VM along with its drives and have the VM be a FC target, then consume that storage using FCoE from the host(s).

You actually don't need to pass an HBA through. Most FC HBAs and switches nowadays support NPIV (N-Port ID Virtualization) which in conjunction with VMware, allows you to have a virtual FC HBA that has its own WWPN that you can zone in like a hardware host. This has the added benefit of being able to use a LUN directly in a VM without having to either use RDM or (even worse) a VMDK.

 

[vanfawx]

Is the 1G SFP can work in the SFP+ ports in the switch MP8000? I think it will work in theory but still need to practice.

Gigabit SFP's will work in a 10GbE SFP+ port, so long as the switch marks the ports as 100/1000/10000. With the Cisco Nexus 3k switches I work with, you can even use non-cisco SFP's, but you need to manually set the speed on the port to get the SFP to detect properly.

If your switch marks the ports as 10000 only, you're out of luck, SFP modules won't work.

 

[Curdie]

It looks like this Brocade switch is 10000 only on the FCoE ports- but not on the FC ports. I believe I do have licenses to use those ports, and I remember reading that you *can* configure them for FCoE, but I sure can't figure out how. Frustrating!

 

[vanfawx]

It looks like this Brocade switch is 10000 only on the FCoE ports- but not on the FC ports. I believe I do have licenses to use those ports, and I remember reading that you *can* configure them for FCoE, but I sure can't figure out how. Frustrating!

The FC ports are for FC only, they cannot run Ethernet. That is why they don't run at 10Gbps. They'll run at 2, 4, or 8Gbps, depending on the fabric you're connecting into.

The reason the switch has both traditional FC ports and FCoE ports is so it can hook into tradition FC infrastructure and then expose it over Ethernet (the oE in FCoE). This is for customers who have an existing investment in a FC SAN or other FC equipment.

Hope that helps clear up the differences in the ports you're attempting to use.

 

[Chuckleb]

I thought my coworker said these can be programmed to Ethernet ports or FC ports? It's part of the switch config...

 

[Curdie]

I thought my coworker said these can be programmed to Ethernet ports or FC ports? It's part of the switch config...

That's what I heard, too. Darned if I can figure it out though. I've scoured the docs and the CLI. Pretty certain it can't be done. Would *love* to be proved wrong

 

[vanfawx]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the documentation confirms it. 24 ports are 10GbE FCoE compatible, the remaining 8 ports are 8Gbps FC. The FC ports will only accept FC SFP modules.

 

[Chuckleb]

I agree. I checked with my coworker and he agreed. Sorry!

 

[vanfawx]

No worries! It's a cool switch, but a big downside in my eyes is the fact the 10GbE ports only do that. They don't seem to accept SFP modules to provide for speeds lower than 10,000.

 

[Curdie]

I can also confirm this. I have very methodically tried everything. Brocade 1GB SFPs don't work in the FCoE ports and the FC ports (as far as I can tell) cannot be configured as switch ports.

I wound up purchasing a 48-port Force10 switch with an expansion module for two SFP+ ports in order to hook this up to my old Ethernet gear. It works well and did not break the bank. Probably old news to most of you guys, but I was happily surprised to find that my Brocade 57-0000075-01 SFP+ work well in the Force10 expansion module. 1020Ns work fine connected to the Force10 or to the Brocade MP8000. So, mission accomplished.

If I had known what I know now, I would have purchased a Force10 S4810P-AC with 48 SFP+ and 4 QSFP+. I may do this anyway and resell the other switches. 40GbE x4 to my server and (for my purposes) basically unlimited 1GB/10GB SFP+ ports... overkill I suppose, but hey. One less potential bottleneck for... you know... whatever...

 

[vanfawx]

Another alternative is Cisco Nexus 3k switches which have been out for years now and are starting to show on ebay, and Arista switches which are essentially identical in terms of features, but running their own OS.

The fact that the nexus 3k switches accept any SFP/SFP+ modules I've thrown at them (brocade, hp, ibm, dell) and they support 100mbps up to 10,000mbps via GLC-T SFP's (copper rj-45 gigabit...I only know the cisco part number for it).

 

[Curdie]

Thanks for the tip! Those N3K switches are pretty competitively priced- right around the same as Force10 switches of similar spec.