Operating FCoE using bnx2fc

Broadcom FCoE offload through bnx2fc is full stateful hardware offload thatcooperates with all interfaces provided by the Linux ecosystem for FC/FCoE andSCSI controllers. As such, FCoE functionality, once enabled is largelytransparent. Devices discovered on the SAN will be registered and unregisteredautomatically with the upper storage layers.

Despite the fact that the Broadcom’s FCoE offload is fully offloaded, it doesdepend on the state of the network interfaces to operate. As such, the networkinterface (e.g. eth0) associated with the FCoE offload initiator must be ‘up’.It is recommended that the network interfaces be configured to be brought upautomatically at boot time.

Furthermore, the Broadcom FCoE offload solution creates VLAN interfaces tosupport the VLANs that have been discovered for FCoE operation (e.g.eth0.1001-fcoe). Do not delete or disable these interfaces or FCoE operationwill be disrupted.

Driver Usage Model:

  1. Ensure that fcoe-utils package is installed.

2. Configure the interfaces on which bnx2fc driver has to operate on.Here are the steps to configure:

  1. cd /etc/fcoe
  2. copy cfg-ethx to cfg-eth5 if FCoE has to be enabled on eth5.
  3. Repeat this for all the interfaces where FCoE has to be enabled.
  4. Edit all the cfg-eth files to set “no” for DCB_REQUIRED** field, and“yes” for AUTO_VLAN.
  5. Other configuration parameters should be left as default
  1. Ensure that “bnx2fc” is in SUPPORTED_DRIVERS list in /etc/fcoe/config.

4. Start fcoe service. (service fcoe start). If Broadcom devices are present inthe system, bnx2fc driver would automatically claim the interfaces, starts vlandiscovery and log into the targets.

5. “Symbolic Name” in ‘fcoeadm -i’ output would display if bnx2fc has claimedthe interface.

Eg:

[root@bh2 ~]# fcoeadm -i   Description:      NetXtreme II BCM57712 10 Gigabit Ethernet   Revision:         01   Manufacturer:     Broadcom Corporation   Serial Number:    0010186FD558   Driver:           bnx2x 1.70.00-0   Number of Ports:  2       Symbolic Name:     bnx2fc v1.0.5 over eth5.4       OS Device Name:    host11       Node Name:         0x10000010186FD559       Port Name:         0x20000010186FD559       FabricName:        0x2001000DECB3B681       Speed:             10 Gbit       Supported Speed:   10 Gbit       MaxFrameSize:      2048       FC-ID (Port ID):   0x0F0377       State:             Online
  1. Verify the vlan discovery is performed by running ifconfig and notice<INTERFACE>.<VLAN>-fcoe interfaces are automatically created.

Refer to fcoeadm manpage for more information on fcoeadm operations tocreate/destroy interfaces or to display lun/target information.

NOTE

** Broadcom FCoE capable devices implement a DCBX/LLDP client on-chip. Only oneLLDP client is allowed per interface. For proper operation all host softwarebased DCBX/LLDP clients (e.g. lldpad) must be disabled. To disable lldpad on agiven interface, run the following command:

lldptool set-lldp -i <interface_name> adminStatus=disabled