Active IQ Unified Manager Discussions

SANScreen in end-to-end FCoE environment?

breynolds
5,351 Views

Can any of the NetApp folks tell me if SANScreen in end to

end FCoE environment is supported?

If so, which features or limitations exist?

Assume FCoE initiators in the hosts and netapp storage target fcoe.  Cisco Nexus used for the FCoE, DCB and 10GigE.

Does SANScreen have a value prop/play here?  If not, are there future plans for such?

Thank you.

8 REPLIES 8

benh
5,352 Views

Hi Bryan,

SANscreen currently does not support FCOE.

Our current road map shows FCOE as being supported in Q3 of 2011 and further support in Q1 2012.

As with all road maps its subject to change and as demand increases for FCOE it may move up or out.

breynolds
5,352 Views

Thank you.

zipclick2000
5,351 Views

I thought version 6 of SANscreen suppose to have that on roadmap for March release supporting nexus os?  I was under impression it wouldn't be as far as 2011.  We already have over 10 nexus 5k/7k switches in our data centers.  Would be nice to have it earlier rather than later.

hoffman
5,351 Views

Hi Andrew,

I'm not sure of any roadmap dates, but support for Nexus OS and end-to-end FCOE support are probably going to be two separate items on the roadmap.  I'm speculating here, but my guess is that the initial support for Nexus OS will provide discovery of the FC information from the Nexus, without any true understanding of the DCE component of the infrastructure.  Full FCOE support would likely include an understanding of DCE in the SANscreen model. 

As I mentioned, the above is just speculation - it's probably worth getting in touch with your SANscreen account team to get the real information.

Regards,

Bryan

benh
5,352 Views

Andrew,

We don't have a definitive time frame for FCOE besides what has been shared above.  As for the FC protocol on a nexus switch we have plans to support the connectivity of FC attached devices but its not committed to be a part of 6.0 in its first release.

Yes please follow up with your account team for more details.

gadio
5,352 Views

We are looking at FCoE to see if there is a potential two phase approach. We would like to first support FC abstraction of FCoE without going into the lower levels of the protocol, and later go into the lower levels of the protocol. We are researching that direction and if possible we may come up with something earlier. We will update the roadmap to present that.

gadio
5,352 Views

An update:

The first phase of FCoE support (as described above) was implemented and is a part of SANscreen 6.1, that is already GA.

This provides support for the following use cases:

1. Visibility of paths, discovery / topology of logical layers of the protocol

2. Policies and violations on paths that are FC and FCoE or just FCoE

3. Capacity planning and chargeback

This does not support:

1. Discovery / topology of the lower levels of the protocol (e.g. Ethernet)

2. Performance colection on FCoE ports

benh
5,352 Views

Also, to be clear we just support cisco at this time and brocade will be later on the road map.

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