On Wed, 2011-02-16 at 21:25 -0800, Mr.Nice Guy wrote: > Hi All, > > I am new to FCoE but very interested to know how FCoE works. I am planning to > do some experimentation with the source available. But before that I would > like to know is there any HW that I would need though my goal is just > experimenting/learning for now. I understand that CNAs might be needed > eventually. But can I successfully use FCoE between two systems that are > connected in the same network to do some experiments? > >
FCoE targets 10Gb Ethernet and attaches to existing FC fabrics using special switches called Fibre Channel Forwarders. A loss-less Ethernet network is also needed to provide reliability on the Ethernet segments. Open-FCoE provides FCoE support for any Ethernet adapter, some have offloads and some don't. You can use lldpad, from open-lldp.org, for the lossless network, or you can use simple pause if you're not going to do any converged traffic. The QUICKSTART file in fcoe-uitls should have some details about lldpad. In the absence of a Fibre Channel fabric and Fibre Channel Forwarders you can connect a SW initiator with a SW target using a point-to-point connection. So the bottom line is that you can do FCoE with two systems connected back to back. //Rob PS: Here is another e-mail thread that answers your question in a slightly different way. https://lists.open-fcoe.org/pipermail/devel/2011-February/011111.html _______________________________________________ devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.open-fcoe.org/mailman/listinfo/devel
