what-when-how

In Depth Tutorials and Information

Implementing IPv6 for the SAN

The Cisco Multilayer Director Switch (MDS) 9000 provides SAN access features such as Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) and iSCSI, using IPv4 and IPv6.
These services leverage the existing IP-based network to provide Fibre Channel-based services.

FCIP
FCIP enables enterprise networks to extend the reach of Fibre Channel storage-area networks (SAN) using the existing IP network. This proves to be cost
effective because extending SANs using dedicated Fibre Channel can be very costly to implement as well as can add management overhead. NX OS supports
dual-stack and multiple FCIP tunnels (one tunnel can support both IPv4 and IPv6) on a single physical interface, as illustrated in Figure 9-7.

Figure 9-7 FCIP on MDS Using IPv4 and IPv6

The first step in configuring IPv6 for FCIP is to enable IPv6 routing and the FCIP features, as shown in Example 9-9.

Example 9-9 Enabling IPv6 and FCIP on MDS Switches

After this, configure the Gigabit Ethernet interface on the MDS switches, as illustrated in Examples 9-10 and 9-11.

Example 9-10 Interface Configuration on MDS 1

Example 9-11 Interface Configuration on MDS 2

You can verify the connectivity by using the ping command, as illustrated in Example 9-12. Example 9-12 ping Command Output on the MDS
Next, configure the FCIP profiles and FCIP tunnels. In this example, one physical Gigabit Ethernet is being used by two FCIP tunnels. One FCIP tunnel is the
existing IPv4 tunnel, and the second FCIP tunnel is the IPv6 tunnel. Different TCP ports can be used to configure multiple FCIP tunnels. For your example,
configure a new FCIP tunnel using TCP port 3226. Traffic can be slowly migrated to the IPv6 FCIP tunnel. The FCIP profile and tunnel configuration can be
configured as illustrated in Examples 9-13 and 9-14. It is important to point out that while this example has two tunnels (one for each protocol), both IPv4 and
IPv6 can be enabled on a single tunnel.

Example 9-13 Cisco MDS FCIP Configuration on MDS 1 Switch

Example 9-14 Cisco MDS FCIP Configuration on MDS 2 Switch

You can verify the FCIP configuration using the show interface commands or the show fcip summary command, as illustrated in Examples 9-15 and 9-16.
Example 9-16 Cisco MDS show fcip summary Command on MDS 1

Example 9-17 Cisco MDS show fcip summary Command on MDS 2

iSCSI
Internet SCSI (iSCSI) is used widely to transport the SCSI protocol over TCP/IP. iSCSI is a standards-based protocol used to carry SCSI commands and the
SCSI response. It provides hosts block-level access to storage arrays over a TCP/IP network using a network interface card.

The hosts requires an iSCSI driver that is used to bridge the SCSI and TCP/IP protocols. This driver translates SCSI commands between the host and storage
into an iSCSI pay-load that can be forwarded on the TCP/IP network. It also performs the reverse function of translating the incoming iSCSI payload from the
storage to the server into the SCSI command.

Gigabit Ethernet NICs are widely used as a standard connectivity interface for iSCSI on servers because they provide 1-Gbps speed connectivity between host
and storage.

The MDS 9000 series switches supports configuration for IPv6 when using iSCSI, as illustrated in Figure 9-8. The Gigabit Ethernet and iSCSI initiator can
be configured for IPv6 as shown in Example 9-18.

Figure 9-8 Cisco MDS iSCSI Configuration

Example 9-18 Cisco MDS IPv6 Configuration for iSCSI

Illustrated in Figure 9-9 is an iSCSI Initiator client on a Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 host that is using the MDS as the target portal for the iSCSI
session.
Figure 9-9 iSCSI Initiator Client

Cisco MDS Management

Cisco Fabric Manager is the management tool that uses Simple Network Management Protocol version 3 (SNMPv3) to provide a graphical user interface
that displays real-time views of the devices in the network. The Fabric Manager relies on the underlying operating system’s IPv6 configuration. After
connectivity is established between the Fabric Manager server and the MDS switch, the operation of the SNMP get and set operations is no different than
IPv4.

The MDS 9000 Series also provides out-of-band management through the mgmt0 port and in-band management using virtual SAN (VSAN) interfaces, which
is also known as IP over FC (IPFC). Figure 9-10 illustrates methods to manage the MDS switch.

Figure 9-10 Cisco MDS Management

All interfaces illustrated in Figure 9-10 capable of IP addressing can use IPv6 and IPv4 addresses. Example 9-19 provides a configuration example of the out-
of-band management interface mgmt0 and in-band interface using VSAN 10.

Example 9-19 Cisco MDS Management-Based Configuration

Figure 9-11 shows Fabric Manager 4.2 showing the management interface configuration. Fabric Manager can be used to configure the IPv4- and IPv6-specific
settings on the MDS such as management, FCIP, and iSCSI.

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