Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide 491
53-1002745-02
Chapter
19
Inter-chassis Links
In this chapter
•Inter-chassis links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
•ICLs for the Brocade DCX 8510 Backbone family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
•ICLs for the Brocade DCX Backbone family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
•Virtual Fabrics considerations for ICLs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
•Supported topologies for ICL connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Inter-chassis links
An inter-chassis link (ICL) is a licensed feature used to interconnect two Brocade Backbones. ICL
ports in the core blades are used to interconnect the Backbones, potentially increasing the number
of usable ports in the Backbone chassis. The ICL ports are internally managed as E_Ports.
The Brocade Backbones support two types of ICLs:
• The Brocade DCX 8510 Backbone family supports optical ICL QSFPs.
• The Brocade DCX Backbone family supports proprietary copper ICL connectors.
When two Brocade Backbones are interconnected by ICLs, each chassis requires a unique domain
and is managed as a separate switch.
ICL ports can be used only with an ICL license. For more information on how license enforcement
occurs, refer to Chapter 18, “Administering Licensing”. After the addition or removal of a license,
the license enforcement is performed on the ICL ports only when you issue the portDisable and
portEnable commands on the switch for the ports or the bladeDisable and bladeEnable commands
for the core blade. All ICL ports must be disabled and then re-enabled for the license to take effect.
An ICL license must be installed on both platforms forming the ICL connection.
The ICL ports appear as regular ports, with some restrictions. All port parameters associated with
ICL ports are static and all portCfg commands are blocked from changing any of the ICL port
parameters. The only management associated with ICL ports and cables is monitoring the status of
the LEDs on the ICL ports and any maintenance if the Attention LED is blinking yellow.
When you connect two Brocade Backbones, the following features are supported:
• Trunking
A Brocade trunking license is not required for trunking on ICL connections but is required for
ISL trunking connections.
• Buffer-to-buffer credit sharing
• QoS
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