Update recommendation
All products supported by Fabric OS 6.0.x can be upgraded to Fabric OS 6.3.0c, with the exception
of the following switches:
• HP StorageWorks 4/8 SAN Switch
• HP StorageWorks 4/16 SAN Switch
• Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch for HP p-Class BladeSystem
• Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch for HP c-Class BladeSystem
If applicable, HP recommends that you upgrade to Fabric OS 6.3.0c as soon as possible to take
advantage of the latest fixes and features.
For more information, see “Firmware upgrades and downgrades” on page 23.
Supersedes
Fabric OS 6.3.0b, released November 2009
New features
This section describes new features introduced with Fabric OS 6.3.0.
FCIP enhancements
• FC traffic—Traffic can be transported over an IP network when the 1-GbE or 10-GbE ports are
configured to support FCIP. Fabric OS 6.3.0 and later supports up to 20 FCIP tunnels on a DC
SAN Director Multiprotocol Extension Blade, and 8 FCIP tunnels on the 1606 Extension SAN
Switch. The FCIP tunnels on the local and remote GbE ports act as the Virtual E_Ports (VE_Ports),
connecting the local and remote fabrics. Performance is optimized for FCP and FICON traffic using
batching/debatching operations on all data and command frames/IUs. This prevents fragmentation
of multiple 2,112-size FC frames (batch) into smaller IP frames, compared to single-frame exchanges
(for example, FC frame generators).
• FCIP Trunking—This is a new feature available on the DC SAN Director Multiprotocol Extension
Blade and 1606 Extension SAN Switch that virtualizes two or more TCP connections as part of a
single FCIP tunnel. These connections, called circuits, are configured explicitly to be part of an
FCIP tunnel. Their primary purpose is to increase the tunnel bandwidth and provide failover paths
in the event of a network failure. FCIP Trunking functionality and the additional TCP connections
are transparent to the applications using the FCIP tunnel. FCIP Trunking requires the optional Ad-
vanced Extension license.
• Advanced Compression—The 1606 Extension SAN Switch allows FC data frames to be compressed
on a per-tunnel basis before they are sent over the tunnel as FCIP frames. The FC command frames
and all frames generated from or destined for the CP are not compressed, even when compression
is enabled on a tunnel. The uncompressed and compressed packets and bytes are counted and
maintained on a per-tunnel basis. The compression ratio can be found for a given polling interval
by reading the number of compressed and uncompressed bytes. The compression is performed
by the hardware on a frame-by-frame basis, and is performed on FC data frames in the ingress
direction before they are encapsulated as FCIP frames.
HP StorageWorks Fabric OS 6.3.0c Release Notes 5
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