HP AE370A HP StorageWorks Fabric OS 6.x administrator guide (5697-0015, May 20 - Page 477

B Implementing an interoperable fabric This appendix provides information on setting up a heterogeneous fabric that includes Fabric OS switches and McDATA Enterprise OS switches (M-EOS). IMPORTANT: These features are not supported at the time of the release of this document. Please check with your sales representative or http://www.hp.com regarding HP support of the interoperability features. In Fabric OS 6.0, Brocade supports interoperability on new platforms, zone activation, FCR SANtegrity, Fabric OS SANtegrity, and Coordinated Hot Code Load. Prior to this release, you could configure switches for interoperability mode (Open Fabric 1.0), by enabling interopmode 1, which supported non-Brocade switches, for example CISCO and QLogic. This release introduces McDATA Open Fabric mode, interopmode 3, which replaces interopmode 1. You can configure interoperability between McDATA and Brocade switches, but interoperability on non-Brocade switches is no longer supported. McDATA Open Fabric mode is intended specifically for adding Fabric OS-based products into M-EOS fabrics that are already using Open Fabric mode. Fabrics containing only Fabric OS switches in Open Fabric mode are not supported. McDATA switch firmware must run version 9.6.2 to support interoperability. All Fabric OS switches must run version 6.0. Overview Changing the interop mode is no longer a toggle operation. The interopmode command allows changing between McDATA Fabric, McDATA Open Fabric, and back to Brocade Native mode. You must issue the interopmode command on all Fabric OS switches in the fabric and all switches must have the same mode set. All fabric mode changes can only be performed when the switch is disabled or offline and any platform management functions must be disabled. You no longer have to perform a reboot, each Fabric OS switch automatically reboots when you change modes. Fabric OS 6.0 supports changing between interop modes using the following Interopmode command options: Interopmode 2 for McDATA Fabric mode supports M-EOS switches v9.6.2 and later running in McDATA Fabric mode. Interopmode 3 for McDATA Open Fabric mode supports M-EOS switches v9.6.2 and higher running in Open Fabric mode. Interopmode 0 for Brocade Native mode, which supports all stand alone Brocade fabrics, but no interoperability support. Understanding Brocade and McDATA interoperability Determining McDATA-aware features There are two ways that Fabric OS 6.0 determines which features are available to the switch. If a feature is McDATA-aware (that is, aware of the McDATA environment), some actions may be possible fabric-wide. If a feature is McDATA-unaware, some actions cannot be taken. Features that are available fabric-wide in a McDATA-aware environment are shown in Table 104. Table 104 McDATA-aware features Feature Behavior Coordinated Hot Code Load FCR E_Port SANtegrity Supported McDATA Open Fabric mode and McDATA Fabric mode. Supported only in McDATA Fabric mode. Fabric OS 6.x administrator guide 477