Applies to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4

16 Fibre Channel storage over Ethernet networks: FCoE #

Many enterprise data centers rely on Ethernet for their LAN and data traffic, and on Fibre Channel networks for their storage infrastructure. Open Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Initiator software allows servers with Ethernet adapters to connect to a Fibre Channel storage subsystem over an Ethernet network. This connectivity was previously reserved exclusively for systems with Fibre Channel adapters over a Fibre Channel fabric. The FCoE technology reduces complexity in the data center by aiding network convergence. This helps to preserve your existing investments in a Fibre Channel storage infrastructure and to simplify network management.

Figure 16.1: Open Fibre channel over ethernet SAN #

Open-FCoE allows you to run the Fibre Channel protocols on the host, instead of on proprietary hardware on the host bus adapter. It is targeted for 10 Gbps (gigabit per second) Ethernet adapters, but can work on any Ethernet adapter that supports pause frames. The initiator software provides a Fibre Channel protocol processing module and an Ethernet-based transport module. The Open-FCoE module acts as a low-level driver for SCSI. The Open-FCoE transport uses net_device to send and receive packets. Data Center Bridging (DCB) drivers provide the quality of service for FCoE.

FCoE is an encapsulation protocol that moves the Fibre Channel protocol traffic over Ethernet connections without changing the Fibre Channel frame. This allows your network security and traffic management infrastructure to work the same with FCoE as it does with Fibre Channel.

You might choose to deploy FCoE in your enterprise if the following conditions exist:

Your enterprise already has a Fibre Channel storage subsystem and administrators with Fibre Channel skills and knowledge.
You are deploying 10 Gbps Ethernet in the network.

This section describes how to set up FCoE in your network.

16.1 Configuring FCoE interfaces during the installation #

The YaST installation for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server allows you to configure FCoE disks during the operating system installation if FCoE is enabled at the switch for the connections between the server and the Fibre Channel storage infrastructure. Some system BIOS types can automatically detect the FCoE disks, and report the disks to the YaST Installation software. However, automatic detection of FCoE disks is not supported by all BIOS types. To enable automatic detection in this case, you can add the withfcoe option to the kernel command line when you begin the installation:

withfcoe=1

When the FCoE disks are detected, the YaST installation offers the option to configure FCoE instances at that time. On the Disk Activation page, select Configure FCoE Interfaces to access the FCoE configuration. For information about configuring the FCoE interfaces, see Section 16.3, “Managing FCoE services with YaST”.

Note: Mount point support

FCoE devices will appear asynchronously during the boot process. While the initrd guarantees that those devices are set up correctly for the root file system, there are no such guarantees for any other file systems or mount points like /usr. Hence any system mount points like /usr or /var are not supported. To use those devices, ensure correct synchronization of the respective services and devices.

16.2 Installing FCoE and the YaST FCoE client #

You can set up FCoE disks in your storage infrastructure by enabling FCoE at the switch for the connections to a server. If FCoE disks are available when the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server operating system is installed, the FCoE Initiator software is automatically installed at that time.

If the FCoE Initiator software and the YaST FCoE Client software are not installed, use the following procedure to manually install them with the following command:

> sudo zypper in yast2-fcoe-client fcoe-utils

Alternatively, use the YaST Software Manager to install the packages listed above.

16.3 Managing FCoE services with YaST #

You can use the YaST FCoE Client Configuration option to create, configure, and remove FCoE interfaces for the FCoE disks in your Fibre Channel storage infrastructure. To use this option, the FCoE Initiator service (the fcoemon daemon) and the Link Layer Discovery Protocol agent daemon (llpad) must be installed and running, and the FCoE connections must be enabled at the FCoE-capable switch.

Launch YaST and select Network Services › FCoE Client Configuration.
On the Services tab, view or modify the FCoE service and Lldpad (Link Layer Discovery Protocol agent daemon) service start time as necessary.
- FCoE service start: Specifies whether to start the Fibre Channel over Ethernet service fcoemon daemon at the server boot time or manually. The daemon controls the FCoE interfaces and establishes a connection with the llpad daemon. The values are When Booting (default) or Manually.
- Lldpad service start: Specifies whether to start the Link Layer Discovery Protocol agent llpad daemon at the server boot time or manually. The llpad daemon informs the fcoemon daemon about the Data Center Bridging features and the configuration of the FCoE interfaces. The values are When Booting (default) or Manually.
If you modify a setting, click OK to save and apply the change.
On the Interfaces tab, view information about all detected network adapters on the server, including information about VLAN and FCoE configuration. You can also create an FCoE VLAN interface, change settings for an existing FCoE interface, or remove an FCoE interface.
Use the FCoE VLAN Interface column to determine whether FCoE is available or not:
Interface Name
If a name is assigned to the interface, such as eth4.200, FCoE is available on the switch, and the FCoE interface is activated for the adapter.
Not configured:
If the status is not configured, FCoE is enabled on the switch, but an FCoE interface has not been activated for the adapter. Select the adapter, then click Create FCoE VLAN Interface to activate the interface on the adapter.
Not available:
If the status is not available, FCoE is not possible for the adapter because FCoE has not been enabled for that connection on the switch.
To set up an FCoE-enabled adapter that has not yet been configured, select it and click Create FCoE VLAN Interface. Confirm the query with Yes.
The adapter is now listed with an interface name in the FCoE VLAN Interface column.
To change the settings for an adapter that is already configured, select it from the list, then click Change Settings.
The following options can be configured:
FCoE enable
Enable or disable the creation of FCoE instances for the adapter.
DCB required
Specifies whether Data Center Bridging is required for the adapter (usually this is the case).
Auto VLAN
Specifies whether the fcoemon daemon creates the VLAN interfaces automatically.
If you modify a setting, click Next to save and apply the change. The settings are written to the /etc/fcoe/cfg-ethX file. The fcoemon daemon reads the configuration files for each FCoE interface when it is initialized.
To remove an interface that is already configured, select it from the list. Click Remove Interface and Continue to confirm. The FCoE Interface value changes to not configured.
On the Configuration tab, view or modify the general settings for the FCoE system service. You can enable or disable debugging messages from the FCoE service script and the fcoemon daemon and specify whether messages are sent to the system log.
Click OK to save and apply changes.

16.4 Configuring FCoE with commands #

The following steps require using the fipvlan command. If the command is not installed, install it by running:

> sudo zypper in fcoe-utils

To discover and configure all Ethernet interfaces, proceed as follows:

Open the terminal.
To discover all available Ethernet interfaces, run the following command:
```
> sudo fipvlan -a
```
For each Ethernet interface where FCoE offload is configured, run the following command:
```
> sudo fipvlan -c -s ETHERNET_INTERFACE
```
The command creates a network interface if it does not exist and starts the Open-FCoE initiator on the discovered FCoE VLAN.

16.5 Managing FCoE instances with the FCoE administration tool #

The fcoeadm utility is the Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) management tool. It can be used to create, destroy, and reset an FCoE instance on a given network interface. The fcoeadm utility sends commands to a running fcoemon process via a socket interface. For information about fcoemon, see the man 8 fcoemon.

The fcoeadm utility allows you to query the FCoE instances about the following:

Interfaces
Target LUNs
Port statistics

The fcoeadm utility is part of the fcoe-utils package. The general syntax for the command looks like the following:

fcoeadm
  [-c|--create] [<ethX>]
  [-d|--destroy] [<ethX>]
  [-r|--reset] [<ethX>]
  [-S|--Scan] [<ethX>]
  [-i|--interface] [<ethX>]
  [-t|--target] [<ethX>]
  [-l|--lun] [<ethX>]
  [-s|--stats <ethX>] [<interval>]
  [-v|--version]
  [-h|--help]

Refer to man 8 fcoeadm for details.

Examples#

fcoeadm -c eth2.101

Create an FCoE instance on eth2.101.

fcoeadm -d eth2.101

Destroy an FCoE instance on eth2.101.

fcoeadm -i eth3

Show information about all FCoE instances on interface eth3. If no interface is specified, information for all interfaces that have FCoE instances created will be shown. The following example shows information on connection eth0.201:

> sudo fcoeadm -i eth0.201
  Description:      82599EB 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection
  Revision:         01
  Manufacturer:     Intel Corporation
  Serial Number:    001B219B258C
  Driver:           ixgbe 3.3.8-k2
  Number of Ports:  1

      Symbolic Name:     fcoe v0.1 over eth0.201
      OS Device Name:    host8
      Node Name:         0x1000001B219B258E
      Port Name:         0x2000001B219B258E
      FabricName:        0x2001000573D38141
      Speed:             10 Gbit
      Supported Speed:   10 Gbit
      MaxFrameSize:      2112
      FC-ID (Port ID):   0x790003
      State:             Online

fcoeadm -l eth3.101

Show detailed information about all LUNs discovered on connection eth3.101. If no connection is specified, information about all LUNs discovered on all FCoE connections will be shown.

fcoeadm -r eth2.101

Reset the FCoE instance on eth2.101.

fcoeadm -s eth3 3

Show statistical information about a specific eth3 port that has FCoE instances, at an interval of three seconds. The statistics are displayed one line per time interval. If no interval is given, the default of one second is used.

fcoeadm -t eth3

Show information about all discovered targets from a given eth3 port having FCoE instances. After each discovered target, any associated LUNs are listed. If no instance is specified, targets from all ports that have FCoE instances are shown. The following example shows information of targets from the eth0.201 connection:

> sudo fcoeadm -t eth0.201
  Interface:        eth0.201
  Roles:            FCP Target
  Node Name:        0x200000D0231B5C72
  Port Name:        0x210000D0231B5C72
  Target ID:        0
  MaxFrameSize:     2048
  OS Device Name:   rport-8:0-7
  FC-ID (Port ID):  0x79000C
  State:            Online

LUN ID  Device Name   Capacity   Block Size  Description
------  -----------  ----------  ----------  ----------------------------
    40  /dev/sdqi     792.84 GB      512     IFT DS S24F-R2840-4 (rev 386C)
    72  /dev/sdpk     650.00 GB      512     IFT DS S24F-R2840-4 (rev 386C)
   168  /dev/sdgy       1.30 TB      512     IFT DS S24F-R2840-4 (rev 386C)

16.6 More information #

For information, see the follow documentation:

For information about the Open-FCoE service daemon, see the fcoemon(8) man page.
For information about the Open-FCoE Administration tool, see the fcoeadm(8) man page.
For information about the Data Center Bridging Configuration tool, see the dcbtool(8) man page.
For information about the Link Layer Discovery Protocol agent daemon, see the lldpad(8) man page.