Deploying FCoE (FIP Snooping) on Dell PowerConnect 10G Switches: M8024-k, 8024, and 8024F
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PFC
Priority Flow Control (PFC), or Per-Priority Pause is defined in the IEEE 802.1Qbb standard. PFC is flow
control based on priority settings and adds additional information to the standard pause frame. The
additional fields added to the pause frame allow devices to pause traffic on a specific priority instead
of pausing all traffic. (IEEE, 2009) Pause frames will be initiated by the FCF in most cases when its
receive buffers are starting to reach a congested point. With PFC traffic is paused instead of dropped
and retransmitted. This provides the lossless network behavior necessary for FC packets to be
encapsulated and passed along the Ethernet paths.
NPIV
N-port identifier virtualization which enables multiple N-port fabric logins at the same time on the
same physical FC link (Cisco Systems, Inc., 2011).This term is in reference to the Cisco Nexus 5000
series switches implementation of NPIV.
NPV
N-port virtualizer is a FC aggregation method which passes traffic through to end devices, while
eliminating the need to use a domain ID for this device (Cisco Systems, Inc., 2011). This term is also in
reference to configuration settings on the Cisco Nexus 5000 series switches.
VSAN
Virtual SAN is a logical partitioning of physical connections to provide for fabric or SAN separation.
Note: The Dell M1000e Server Chassis includes a console redirect feature that allows you to manage
each PowerConnect M8024-k module from a single serial connection to the chassis. For more
information about console redirect, see the Dell Blade Server CMC User's Guide
at http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smdrac3/cmc/index.htm
.