Dell Force10 MXL Blade Getting Started Guide - Page 32

DCB Support DCB enhancements for data center networks are supported to eliminate packet loss and provision links with required bandwidth. On the MXL 10/40GbE Switch, you must manually configure DCBX port roles to enable the switch to auto-configure its DCB settings to match the DCB configuration in the ToR switches to which it connects. FCoE Connectivity Many data centers use Fiber Channel (FC) in storage area networks (SANs). Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) encapsulates Fiber Channel frames over Ethernet networks. On a MXL 10/40GbE Switch, the internal ports of the MXL 10/40GbE Switch support FCoE connectivity and connect to the converged network adapter (CNA) in blade servers. FCoE allows Fiber Channel to use 10-Gigabit Ethernet networks while preserving the Fiber Channel protocol. You must manually configure the FCoE settings on the MXL 10/40GbE Switch to match the FCoE settings used in the ToR switches to which it connects. iSCSI Operation Support for iSCSI traffic is turned on by default when the MXL 10/40GbE Switch powers up. The MXL 10/40GbE Switch monitors known TCP ports for iSCSI sessions.When a session is detected, an entry is created and monitored as long as the session is active. The MXL 10/40GbE Switch also detects EqualLogic iSCSI storage devices on all interfaces and auto-configures to optimize performance. Performance optimization operations, such as Jumbo frame size support, STP port-state fast, and disabling of storm control on interfaces connected to an EqualLogic iSCSI storage device, are applied automatically. CLI configuration is necessary only when the configuration includes iSCSI storage devices that cannot be automatically detected and when non-default QoS handling is required. 32 Switch Configuration