Changing the port mode – Dell Brocade Adapters User Manual
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Brocade Adapters Installation and Reference Manual
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Fabric Adapters
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Ethernet or NIC mode. This mode utilizes the Brocade network driver. A 10 GbE SFP or direct
attached SFP+ copper cable must be installed for the port. This mode supports basic Ethernet,
Data Center Bridging (DCB), and other protocols that operate over DCB to provide functions on
a single port that are traditionally provided by an Ethernet Network Interface Card (NIC). Ports
configured in this mode can operate up to 10 Gbps. Fabric Adapters that ship from the factory
with 10GbE SFPs installed or no SFPs installed are configured for Ethernet mode by default.
Fabric Adapter ports set in NIC mode appear as Ethernet ports when discovered in HCM. These
ports appear as “10 GbE NIC” to the operating system.
NOTE
Ethernet and NIC mode may be used interchangeably in this document.
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CNA mode. This mode provides all functions of Ethernet or NIC mode, plus adds support for
FCoE features by utilizing the Brocade FCoE storage driver. A 10 GbE SFP or direct attached
SFP+ copper cable must be installed for the port. Ports configured in CNA mode connect to an
FCoE switch. These ports provide all traditional CNA functions for allowing Fibre Channel traffic
to converge onto 10 Gbps DCB networks. The ports even appear as network interface
controllers (NICs) and Fibre Channel adapters to the host. FCoE and 10 Gbps DBS operations
run simultaneously.
Fabric Adapter ports set CNA mode appear as FCoE ports when discovered in HCM. These
ports appear as “10 GbE NIC” to the operating system.
Changing the port mode
You can change the mode of individual ports on an adapter using the following BCU commands:
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The bcu port --mode command allows you can change the mode of individual ports on the
adapter.
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The bcu adapter --mode command allows you can change all ports on the adapter to a specific
mode.
For more information on these commands, refer to the Brocade Adapters Administrator’s Guide.
As general steps to change a port’s operating mode, perform the following steps:
1. Change the mode using the bcu port --mode or bcu adapter --mode BCU commands.
2. Make sure the appropriate SFP (FC or 10 GbE) and driver packages are installed to operate the
port in the selected mode if they are not already installed. Refer to
information on drivers.
3. Power-cycle the host system.
Dynamically changing the port mode is equivalent to plugging in a new device in the system. so
the system must be power-cycled for this configuration change to take effect.
NOTE
For Windows systems you must install the drivers for the new mode after the system is rebooted.
This is not required if the appropriate driver is already pre-installed in the system.
When you change the port mode, the port resets to factory defaults for physical functions (PF)
associated with the mode (refer to
“Factory default PF configurations”
on page 16). For details on
configuring ports for different operating modes, refer to the Brocade Adapters Administrator’s
Guide.