Dell Brocade G620 Brocade 8.0.1 Fabric OS Administratiors Guide - Page 458

ICL trunking between Brocade X6 Directors

Page 458 highlights

Inter-chassis Links NOTE QSFP ICLs and ISLs in the same logical switch and connected to the same neighboring switch are not supported. This is a topology restriction with 16 Gbps ICLs and any ISLs that are E_Ports or VE_Ports.If Virtual Fabrics is enabled, you can have ICLs and ISLs between a pair of X6 chassis if the ICLs are in a different logical switch than the ISLs. ICL trunking between Brocade X6 Directors Trunking optimizes the use of ICL bandwidth by allowing a group of links to merge into a single logical link, called a trunk. Traffic is distributed dynamically and in order over this trunk, achieving greater performance with fewer links. Within the trunk, multiple physical ports appear as a single port, thus simplifying management. Trunking also improves system reliability by maintaining in-order delivery of data and avoiding I/O retries if one link within the trunk fails. Each QSFP provides four 32 Gbps FC ports. Since each port within a QSFP terminates on a different ASIC within each core blade, an ICL trunk cannot be formed using the individual FC ports withing the same QSFP. A trunk has to be formed from individual FC ports in different QSFP ports. These QSFP ports must reside in the same trunk group. To form an ICL trunk between two devices, a minimum of two QSFPs within a port trunk group on a core blade installed in one device must be connected to a pair of QSFPs within a trunk group on a core blade in another device using ICLs. ICL trunks form automatically but additional licenses may be required for enabling all ICL ports or for larger ICL configurations. For more information about ICL licensing options, refer to the Fabric OS Software Licensing Guide. NOTE Each QSFP cable has four ports, each terminating on a different ASIC. These ports cannot form a trunk with each other, but can form trunks only with corresponding ports on another QSFP. Each core blade in the Brocade X6-8 contains 16 ICL trunk groups. Each core blade in the Brocade X6-4 contains 8 ICL trunk groups. Each ICL trunk group contains 4 user ports, one from each QSFP. To establish ICL trunking between platforms in the Brocade X6 Director family, the QSFP cables must be in the same trunk group. Up to four 4x32 Gbps QSFP ports in a trunk group can form a 512 Gbps trunk between two CR32-4 or CR32-8 blades. The following illustration marks the 4-port ICL trunking boundaries or port groups for X6 core routing blades (CR32-8 and CR32-4 blades): Brocade Fabric OS Administration Guide, 8.0.1 458 53-1004111-02

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NOTE
QSFP ICLs and ISLs in the same logical switch and connected to the same neighboring switch are not supported. This is a
topology restriction with 16 Gbps ICLs and any ISLs that are E_Ports or VE_Ports.If Virtual Fabrics is enabled, you can have
ICLs and ISLs between a pair of X6 chassis if the ICLs are in a different logical switch than the ISLs.
ICL trunking between Brocade X6 Directors
Trunking optimizes the use of ICL bandwidth by allowing a group of links to merge into a single logical link, called a trunk. Traffic is
distributed dynamically and in order over this trunk, achieving greater performance with fewer links. Within the trunk, multiple physical
ports appear as a single port, thus simplifying management. Trunking also improves system reliability by maintaining in-order delivery of
data and avoiding I/O retries if one link within the trunk fails.
Each QSFP provides four 32 Gbps FC ports. Since each port within a QSFP terminates on a different ASIC within each core blade, an
ICL trunk cannot be formed using the individual FC ports withing the same QSFP. A trunk has to be formed from individual FC ports in
different QSFP ports. These QSFP ports must reside in the same trunk group. To form an ICL trunk between two devices, a minimum of
two QSFPs within a port trunk group on a core blade installed in one device must be connected to a pair of QSFPs within a trunk group
on a core blade in another device using ICLs.
ICL trunks form automatically but additional licenses may be required for enabling all ICL ports or for larger ICL configurations. For more
information about ICL licensing options, refer to the
Fabric OS Software Licensing Guide
.
NOTE
Each QSFP cable has four ports, each terminating on a different ASIC. These ports cannot form a trunk with each other, but
can form trunks only with corresponding ports on another QSFP.
Each core blade in the Brocade X6-8 contains 16 ICL trunk groups. Each core blade in the Brocade X6-4 contains 8 ICL trunk groups.
Each ICL trunk group contains 4 user ports, one from each QSFP. To establish ICL trunking between platforms in the Brocade X6
Director family, the QSFP cables must be in the same trunk group. Up to four 4x32 Gbps QSFP ports in a trunk group can form a 512
Gbps trunk between two CR32-4 or CR32-8 blades.
The following illustration marks the 4-port ICL trunking boundaries or port groups for X6 core routing blades (CR32-8 and CR32-4
blades):
Inter-chassis Links
Brocade Fabric OS Administration Guide, 8.0.1
458
53-1004111-02