Dcb support, Fcoe connectivity, Iscsi operation – Dell PowerEdge FX2/FX2s User Manual

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• Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) connectivity
• FCoE Initiation Protocol (FIP) snooping
• Hybrid ports: Ports are administratively up and auto-configured to operate as hybrid ports to transmit

tagged and untagged VLAN traffic.

• iSCSI optimization
• IGMP snooping
• Jumbo frames: Ports are set to a maximum MTU of 12,000 bytes by default.
• Link aggregation: All uplink ports are configured in a single LAG (LAG 128).
• Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP): Enabled on all ports.
• Link tracking: Enables server-facing links to be brought up only if the uplink port-channel (LAG 128) is

up.

DCB Support

DCB enhancements for data center networks are supported to eliminate packet loss and provision links

with required bandwidth.
The Aggregator provides zero-touch configuration for DCB. The Aggregator auto-configures DCBX port
roles to match the DCBX configuration in the ToR switches to which it connects through its uplink ports.

The Aggregator supports Auto DCB only in standalone mode.

FCoE Connectivity

Many data centers use Fibre Channel (FC) in storage area networks (SANs). Fibre Channel over Ethernet
(FCoE) encapsulates Fibre Channel frames over Ethernet networks.

On an Aggregator, the internal ports support FCoE connectivity and connect to the converged network
adapter (CNA) in blade servers. FCoE allows Fibre Channel to use 10-Gigabit Ethernet networks while
preserving the Fibre Channel protocol.

The Aggregator also provides zero-touch configuration for FCoE configuration. The Aggregator auto-
configures to match the FCoE settings used in the ToR switches to which it connects through its uplink
ports.

iSCSI Operation

Support for iSCSI traffic is turned on by default when the Aggregator powers up. No configuration is
required.

When the Aggregator powers up, it monitors known TCP ports for iSCSI storage devices on all interfaces.
When a session is detected, an entry is created and monitored as long as the session is active.

The Aggregator also detects iSCSI storage devices on all interfaces and auto-configures to optimize
performance. Performance optimization operations, such as Jumbo frame size support, and disabling

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