HP Chasssis should have 2 Brocade switches with 8 ports – one switch per fabric. The chassis can also have up to 14 blades in it. The question is – how does each blade manage to login to fabric with its own unique WWN when none of them are connected directly to the fabric?
Theory is:
Chassis switch is connected to edge or core switch (generally using 4 ports). On the chassis switch, enable NPIV. This will virtualise the WWNs for each blade and let each blade log into fabric using that WWN over those 4 connections. The intelligence is within HP Chassis to virtualise the WWNs.
Physical connectivity:
Of 8 ports, generally we connect 4 ports from each switch to 4 ports on edge switch to provide physical connectivity.
Configuration of Chassis switch:
Disable the switch, configure AG mode which will require a reboot of the switch.
hpchassis# switchdisable
hpchassis# ag –modeenable
hpchassis# switchenable
Configuration of Edge/Core switch:
Find out Area Number/NPIV capability/Trunk Port settings of ports where chassis switch is connected to
The area number is needed to form the trunk group and both the Trunk Port and NPIV capability should be set on “ON”. All are defaults so should be OK. Disable each port that will be part of the trunk group.
switch# portcfgshow 2/32
Configure the Area Number for all ports in the trunk to be the same. The number should be the one noted after the portcfgshow command earlier.
switch# porttrunkarea –enable 2/32-35 -index 16 (put ports 2/32 to 2/35 into the same trunk)
Verify the area number has been set to the same value on related ports
switch# porttrunkarea –show 2/32-35 (The TI column for each port should show the same value)
Enable all four ports and check that the AG has been recognised
switch# portenable 2/32
switch# portenable 2/33
switch# portenable 2/34
switch# agshow
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