HP Cisco MDS 9140 Cisco MDS 9000 Family Fabric Manager Configuration Guide, Re - Page 475

Send documentation comments to [email protected] 24 C H A P T E R Configuring Trunking This chapter describes the trunking feature provided in Cisco MDS 9000 switches. It includes the following sections: • About Trunking, page 24-1 • Trunking Protocol, page 24-2 • Default Settings, page 24-6 About Trunking Trunking, also known as VSAN trunking, is a feature specific to switches in the Cisco MDS 9000 Family. Trunking enables interconnect ports to transmit and receive frames in more than one VSAN, over the same physical link, using enhanced ISL (EISL) frame format (see Figure 24-1). Figure 24-1 Trunking Switch 1 E port Any other switch ISL E port Switch 1 Switch 2 EISL TE port TE port Trunking 79938 The trunking feature includes the following restrictions: • Trunking configurations are only applicable to E ports. If trunk mode is enabled in an E port and that port becomes operational as a trunking E port, it is referred to as a TE port. • The trunk-allowed VSANs configured for TE ports are used by the trunking protocol to determine the allowed-active VSANs in which frames can be received or transmitted. • If a trunking enabled E port is connected to a third-party switch, the trunking protocol ensures seamless operation as an E port. Note Trunking is not supported by internal ports on both the Cisco Fabric Switch for HP c_Class BladeSystem and the Cisco Fabric Switch for IBM BladeCenter. OL-16184-01, Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 3.x Cisco MDS 9000 Family CLI Configuration Guide 24-1