Brocade Fabric OS v6.1.

0a
Release Notes v2.0

April 25, 2008

Document History

Document Title Summary of Changes Publication Date

Brocade Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Initial release April 18, 2008

Brocade Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes v2.0 Added defect 206188 at the beginning of April 25, 2008
the table of Closed Defects in Fabric OS
v6.1.0a, page 20.
Copyright © 2001 - 2008 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Brocade, Fabric OS, File Lifecycle Manager, MyView, and StorageX are registered trademarks and the Brocade B-wing symbol,
DCX, and SAN Health are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries.
All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or
services of their respective owners.
Notice: The information in this document is provided “AS IS,” without warranty of any kind, including, without limitation, any
implied warranty of merchantability, noninfringement or fitness for a particular purpose. Disclosure of information in this
material in no way grants a recipient any rights under Brocade's patents, copyrights, trade secrets or other intellectual property
rights. Brocade reserves the right to make changes to this document at any time, without notice, and assumes no responsibility for
its use.
The authors and Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. shall have no liability or responsibility to any person or entity with
respect to any loss, cost, liability, or damages arising from the information contained in this book or the computer programs that
accompany it.
Notice: The product described by this document may contain “open source” software covered by the GNU General Public
License or other open source license agreements. To find-out which open source software is included in Brocade products, view
the licensing terms applicable to the open source software, and obtain a copy of the programming source code, please visit
http://www.brocade.com/support/oscd.
Export of technical data contained in this document may require an export license from the United States
Government

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 2 of 25

Contents
Document History........................................................................................................................................................1
Quick Look...................................................................................................................................................................4
Overview ...................................................................................................................................................... 4
New Feature Descriptions .......................................................................................................................... 5
Enhanced Connectivity with McDATA Products .....................................................................................................5
Access Gateway Enhancements..................................................................................................................................6
Integrated Routing ......................................................................................................................................................6
Traffic Isolation Zones over FCR...............................................................................................................................6
Port Mirroring .............................................................................................................................................................7
Temporary Licenses ....................................................................................................................................................7
Buffer Credit Recovery ...............................................................................................................................................7
FCIP Performance Enhancements.............................................................................................................................7
Port Fencing .................................................................................................................................................................7
Other.............................................................................................................................................................................7
Optionally Licensed Software.................................................................................................................... 8
Previously Licensed Software Now Part of Base FOS..............................................................................................9
Supported Switches.................................................................................................................................... 9
Standards Compliance ............................................................................................................................... 9
Technical Support....................................................................................................................................... 9
Important Notes......................................................................................................................................... 10
Fabric OS Compatibility...........................................................................................................................................10
Firmware Upgrades and Downgrades .....................................................................................................................14
Scalability ...................................................................................................................................................................15
FICON Support .........................................................................................................................................................17
Other Important Notes and Recommendations ......................................................................................................17
Documentation Updates........................................................................................................................... 18
Closed Defects in Fabric OS v6.1.0a ........................................................................................................................20

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 3 of 25

Quick Look
If you are already using the most recent version of the Fabric OS v6.1.0 Release Notes, here are
the changes between that version and this version.
• The table at the end of these notes contains a list of the defects closed since the release of
the Fabric OS v6.1.0 release notes.
• Access Gateway Cascading is now supported.
• Additions to the Documentation Updates section noting changes in the Brocade Fabric
OS Administrator’s Guide, the Brocade Fabric OS MIB Reference documents and the
Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide.
• Several changes have been made to the Other Important Notes and Recommendations
section, including the addition of Licensing Behaviors, changes to Integrated Routing,
and the removal of a limitation for Integrated Routing and AG ISL Trunking related to
the FC8-48 blade in the DCX. Some limitations related to Port Mirroring and Port
Fencing have also been removed.
• Added defect 206188 at the beginning of the table of Closed Defects in Fabric OS
v6.1.0a, page 20. This defect was in the pre-GA announcement, but was removed from
the release note late in the test process because of a failure on one of the systems testing
the defect. Subsequent to the GA, the test group verified that the problem was due to a
bad cable.

Overview
Brocade Fabric OS v6.1.0 supports the following new hardware platforms:

• Brocade 5300: 48 – 80 port 2U switch

o 8 Gbit/sec technology
o Ports On Demand scaling from 48 to 64 or 80 ports
o Supports Integrated Routing and Adaptive Networking with QoS
o Two hot-swappable, redundant power supply FRUs
o Three hot-swappable, redundant fan FRUs
o EZSwitchSetup support
o USB Port
o FICON, FICON Cascading and FICON Control Unit Port ready

• Brocade 5100: 24 – 40 1U port switch

o 8 Gbit/sec technology
o Ports On Demand scaling from 24 to 32 or 40 ports
o Supports Integrated Routing and Adaptive Networking with QoS
o Two hot-swappable, redundant integrated power supply/fan FRUs
o EZSwitchSetup support
o USB Port
o FICON, FICON Cascading and FICON Control Unit Port ready

• Brocade 300: 8 – 24 port 1U switch

o 8 Gbit/sec technology
o Ports On Demand scaling from 8 to 16 or 24 ports
o Supports Access Gateway

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 4 of 25

 o Adaptive Networking with QoS
o EZSwitchSetup support
o USB Port

• Brocade 7500E: 4G Distance Extension product with 2FC and 2GigE ports

• Fabric OS v6.1 adds support on the 48000 platform for the following blades:
• FC8-32 32-port 8Gbit/sec FC blade
• FC8-48 48-port 8Gbit/sec FC blade

In addition to support for the new hardware platforms and blades, there are numerous new features in
Fabric OS v6.1, including:
• Enhanced connectivity with M-Series products
o Support for native connectivity modes on all 8G blades and platforms
o Traffic Isolation Zones in native connectivity modes
o Frame Redirection support in native connectivity modes
o FICON CUP Cascading
o E-port Authentication
o Enhanced scalability for Interopmode 3 (Open Fabric Mode)– support for 31 domains
and 2048 devices
o SANtegrity Fabric Binding in both Ineropmode 2 and Interopmode 3 including FCR
support
• Access Gateway enhancements
o Support on Brocade 300
o AG Trunking
o Advanced Device Security Policy
o 16-bit routing
o AG Cascading
• Integrated Routing, providing FCR support on 8G ports and blades
• Traffic Isolation Zones over FCR
• Port mirroring on 8Gbit platforms
• Temporary licenses for optional features
• Buffer credit recovery on all 8G platforms
• FCIP Performance enhancements
• Port Fencing support in Fabric Watch

New Feature Descriptions

Enhanced Connectivity with McDATA Products
• M-EOS Native Fabric Mode support – Fabric OS v6.1 supports “interopmode 2” on nearly all
4G and 8G FOS platforms, which allows a FOS-based switch to participate directly in M-EOS
fabrics running in McDATA Fabric Mode. M-EOS products in the fabric must be operating
with M-EOS v9.6.2 or later.

• M-EOS Open Fabric Mode support – Fabric OS v6.1 supports “interopmode 3” on nearly all
4G and 8G FOS platforms, which allows a FOS-based switch to participate directly in M-EOS
fabrics running in Open Fabric Mode. Interopmode 3 replaces the interopmode 1 capability

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 5 of 25

 provided in earlier versions of Fabric OS. M-EOS products in the fabric must be operating with
M-EOS v9.6.2 or later. Interopmode 3 scalability limits have also been increased to match those
of interopmode 2.

• Traffic Isolation Zones supported in mixed fabrics in Interopmode 2– Fabric OS v6.1 allows
the Traffic Isolation Zones capability to be used in fabrics with M-Type products. The M-EOS
based products can also provide analogous capability through the use of Preferred Path
configurations.

• Frame Redirection -- Fabric OS v6.1 allows Frame Redirection to be used on FOS products that
are operating in either of the native connectivity modes (interopmode 2 or 3). This provides even
greater flexibility and support for environments that are interested in using the powerful Frame
Redirection capability.

Access Gateway Enhancements

• Access Gateway is supported on the Brocade 300.

• Trunking with Access Gateway enables frame distribution across a set of available paths linking
Access Gateway to an adjacent Switch. The adjacent switch to the Access Gateway has to be a
Brocade switch running FOS v6.1 or above version of the firmware. This feature also enhances
availability by enabling seamless fail-over of traffic from a failed N-port to other ports within a
trunk group. Trunking is an optionally licensed feature.

• Advanced Device Security Policy (ADS) extends the DCC policy to a switch module in Access
Gateway mode. DCC policy support enables a user to restrict N_port logins through an F_port of
an Access Gateway. User must provide a list of device Port WWNs for an F_Port in order to
enable those devices to login through that F_port. This policy is also supported for NPIV
connections on F_ports.

• 16 bit routing enhances interoperability of Access Gateway with Cisco fabrics. Note that this
capability is only applicable to 8G platforms.

• Access Gateway Cascading is now supported, allowing an Access Gateway to attach to another
Access Gateway. This capability provides more flexibility in configurations, more efficient use
of available ports, and additional cable and SFP consolidation.

Integrated Routing
This new licensed capability allows ports in a DCX, 5300, or 5100 to be configured as EX_ports
supporting Fibre Channel Routing. This eliminates the need to add an FR4-18i blade or use the 7500 for
FCR purposes, and also provides double the bandwidth for each FCR connection (when connected to
another 8G-capable port).

Traffic Isolation Zones over FCR

This enhancement enables traffic isolation across EX ports and VEX ports. This benefits applications like
Tape Pipelining and Fast Write that traverse VE ports where customers wish to control the exact path and
ports that are used.

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 6 of 25

Port Mirroring
Fabric OS v6.1 adds support for Port Mirroring to 8Gbit ports. The port mirroring feature mirrors traffic
in both directions between a source and destination ID pair to a single mirror port. The user may connect
a FC analyzer to this mirror port to capture all the mirrored traffic and perform troubleshooting or other
analysis.

Temporary Licenses
Fabric OS v6.1 introduces support for temporary licensing of select features. These licenses are intended
primarily to allow a customer to activate a feature quickly, in a situation where going through the
“regular” license ordering and procurement process may take too much time. These temporary licenses
may also facilitate customers who wish to evaluate a feature prior to making a decision to purchase the
license. Each temporary license is issued for a 45-day period, beginning when the temp license is issued.
A maximum of two 45-day licenses can be generated for a particular feature on a particular product.
In Fabric OS v6.1, the following features will support temporary licenses:

• Fabric (E_port) license

• Extended Fabric license
• Trunking license
• FCIP license
• Performance Monitoring license

Temporary licenses will be available for other optional features in later releases.
Please contact your switch vendor to obtain Temporary Licenses. Temporary licenses will be issued by
Brocade.

Buffer Credit Recovery

FOS v6.1 implements credit recovery protocol as described in FC-FS standards. This feature is supported
only on E-ports and allows switches to automatically recover buffer credits that were accidentally “lost”
over time. Buffer credit recovery prevents link performance degradation that may otherwise occur due to
loss of credits over time.

FCIP Performance Enhancements

FOS v6.1 increases committed rate tunnel performance (utilization) when compressibility exceeds 2:1.
Previous FOS releases capped FC data rates to 2 times the committed rate of the FCIP tunnel. As a result,
as compression ratio increases beyond 2:1, FC throughput remains constant at 2 times the committed rate
and the link utilization decreases. FOS v6.1 now monitors compressibility, adjusts to more compressible
data, and works to fill the FCIP tunnel to the committed rate.

Port Fencing
FOS v6.1 includes new Port Fencing capabilities that can automatically isolate a port that is behaving
outside the bounds of a normal, expected operation. This enhances overall stability of the fabric in the
event of an isolated event that could otherwise cause a major disruption if left unattended. The Port
Fencing capability is included as part of the optionally licensed Fabric Watch feature.

Other
• FOS v6.1 includes enhancements to LDAP allowing Active Directory server roles to be mapped
to the various switch roles.

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 7 of 25

 • Optional –m parameter for slotshow command to display Model Names for each blade installed in a DCX
or 48k chassis.
• Many automatic page breaks in CLI output for commands have been removed to better facilitate scripting.
• RASLOG entry when a switch detects a duplicate WWN has logged in.

Optionally Licensed Software

Optionally licensed features include:
• Brocade Ports on Demand — Allows customers to instantly scale the fabric by provisioning
additional ports via license key upgrade (applies to select models of switches).
• Brocade Extended Fabrics — Provides up to 500km of switches fabric connectivity over long
distances.
• Brocade ISL Trunking — Provides the ability to aggregate multiple physical links into one
logical link for enhanced network performance and fault tolerance. Also includes Access
Gateway ISL Trunking on those products that support Access Gateway deployment.
• Brocade Fabric Manager — Enables administration, configuration, and maintenance of fabric
switches and SANs with host-based software.
• Brocade Advanced Performance Monitoring — Enables performance monitoring of networked
storage resources. This license includes the TopTalkers feature.
• High Performance Extension over FCIP/FC (formerly known as “FC-IP Services”) (For the FR4-
18i blade and Brocade 7500) — This license key also includes the FC-Fastwrite feature and IPsec
capabilities.
• Brocade Fabric Watch — Monitors mission-critical switch operations. Fabric Watch now
includes new Port Fencing capabilities.
• FICON Management Server — Also known as “CUP” (Control Unit Port), enables host-control
of switches in Mainframe environments.
• ICLs, or Inter Chassis Links — Provide dedicated high-bandwidth links between two Brocade
DCX chassis, without consuming valuable front-end 8G ports. Each DCX must have the ICL
license installed in order to enable the ICL connections. (Available on the DCX only)

• Enhanced Group Management — This license, available only on the DCX and new 8G platforms,
enables full management of the device in a datacenter fabric with deeper element management
functionality and greater management task aggregation throughout the environment.

• Adaptive Networking — Adaptive Networking provides a rich framework of capability allowing

a user to ensure high priority connections obtain the bandwidth necessary for optimum
performance, even in congested environments. The QoS SID/DID Prioritization and Ingress rate
limiting features are the first components of this license option, and are fully available on all 8G
platforms.
• Integrated Routing — This new licensed capability, introduced in Fabric OS v6.1, allows ports in
a DCX, 5300, or 5100 to be configured as EX_ports supporting Fibre Channel Routing. This
eliminates the need to add an FR4-18i blade or use the 7500 for FCR purposes, and also provides
double the bandwidth for each FCR connection (when connected to another 8G-capable port).
• 7500E Upgrade (For the Brocade 7500E only) — This license allows customers to upgrade a 4-

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 8 of 25

 port (2 FC ports and 2 GE ports) 7500E base to a full 18-port (16 FC ports and 2 GE ports) 7500
configuration and feature capability. The upgraded 7500E includes the complete High
Performance Extension license feature set.
Some models offer bundles that include 2 or more optionally licensed features. These bundles are defined
for each unique product, and are outside the scope of this release note document.

Previously Licensed Software Now Part of Base FOS

The following capabilities are included as part of the base FOS capability and no additional purchase
or licensing is necessary:
• Advanced Zoning and WebTools licenses are no longer necessary beginning with FOS v6.1.
These features are automatically enabled on all products running FOS v6.1 or later.

Supported Switches
Fabric OS v6.1 supports the Brocade 200E, 300, 4012/4016/4018/4020/4024/4424, 4100, 4900, 5000,
5100, 5300, 7500, 7600, 48000, and DCX. All supported products are qualified for Native Connectivity
in interopmodes 2 and 3 for deployment in M-EOS fabrics with the exception of the Brocade 4100.

Access Gateway is also supported by Fabric OS v6.1.0, and is supported on the following switches: the
Brocade 200E, 300, 4012, 4016, 4018, 4020, 4024 and 4424.

Standards Compliance
This software conforms to the Fibre Channel Standards in a manner consistent with accepted
engineering practices and procedures. In certain cases, Brocade might add proprietary
supplemental functions to those specified in the standards. For a list of standards conformance,
visit the following Brocade Web site: http://www.brocade.com/sanstandards

Technical Support
Contact your switch supplier for hardware, firmware, and software support, including product repairs
and part ordering. To expedite your call, have the following information immediately available:
1. General Information
• Technical Support contract number, if applicable
• Switch model
• Switch operating system version
• Error numbers and messages received
• supportSave command output
• Detailed description of the problem, including the switch or fabric behavior immediately
following the problem, and specific questions
• Description of any troubleshooting steps already performed and the results
• Serial console and Telnet session logs
• Syslog message logs
Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 9 of 25
 2. Switch Serial Number
The switch serial number is provided on the serial number label, as shown here.
FT00X0054E9
FT00X0054E9

The serial number label is located as follows:

• Brocade 200E—On the nonport side of the chassis
• Brocade 4100, 4900, and 7500/7500E—On the switch ID pull-out tab located inside the
chassis on the port side on the left
• Brocade 300, 5000, 5100, and 5300—On the switch ID pull-out tab located on the bottom of
the port side of the switch
• Brocade 7600—On the bottom of the chassis
• Brocade 48000 —Inside the chassis next to the power supply bays
• Brocade DCX—Bottom right of the port side.

3. World Wide Name (WWN)

Use the wwn command to display the switch WWN.
If you cannot use the wwn command because the switch is inoperable, you can get the
WWN from the same place as the serial number, except for the Brocade DCX. For the
Brocade DCX, access the numbers on the WWN cards by removing the Brocade logo
plate at the top of the non-port side. The WWN is printed on the LED side of both cards.

Important Notes
This section contains information that you should consider before you use this firmware
release.

Fabric OS Compatibility
The following table lists the earliest versions of Brocade software supported in this release, that
is, the earliest supported software versions that interoperate. Brocade recommends using the
latest software versions to get the greatest benefit from the SAN.
For a list of the effective end-of-life dates for all versions of Fabric OS, visit the following
Brocade Web site:
http://www.brocade.com/support/end_of_life.jsp

Supported Products and FOS Interoperability

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 10 of 25

 Brocade 2000-series switches Not supported, end of support
(December 2007)

Brocade 3000, 3200, 3800 v3.2.1c

Silkworm 3014, 3016, 3250, 3850 and Brocade 3900, 4100, v5.1 and higher
24000, 7500, 4012, 200E, 48000

Silkworm 12000 v5.0.x

Brocade 4900 v5.2.0 and higher

Brocade 4012, 4016, 4018, 4020, 4024 v5.2.1 and higher

Brocade 5000 v5.2.1 and higher

Brocade 4424 v5.3.0_emb and higher

Brocade 7600 v5.3.0 and higher

Brocade DCX v6.0.0 and higher

Secure Fabric OS (on any model) Not Supported

Mi10k, M6140, ED-6064, ES-3232, ES-4300, ES-4400, ES-4500, M-EOS v9.6.2 2

ES-4700 (McDATA Fabric Mode and Open Fabric Mode) 1

McDATA ED-5000 32-port FC director Not Supported

Multi-Protocol Router interop

Brocade 7420 XPath v7.4.1

Brocade 7500 and FR4-18i blade v5.1.0 and higher

McDATA SANRouters 1620 and 2640 Not Supported

Notes:
1
Other M-EOS models may participate in a fabric with FOS v6.1.0, but may not be directly attached
via E_port to any products running FOS v6.1.0. The McDATA ED-5000 director may not participate
in a mixed M-EOS/FOS fabric.
2
It is highly recommended that M-EOS products operate with the most recent version of M-EOS
released and supported for interoperability. M-EOS 9.6.2 is the minimum version of firmware that
can be used to interoperate with FOS 6.1.0 or later. M-EOS 9.7 or later is recommended for optimum
fabric performance in a mixed FOS and M-EOS fabric.

Fabric OS v6.1.0 software is fully qualified and supports the blades for the 48000 platform noted in the
table below.

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 11 of 25

 48000 Blade Support Matrix

Port blade 16, 32 and 48-port 4Gbit blades (FC4- Supported with any mix and up to 8 of each. No
16, FC4-32, FC4-48), 16, 32 and 48-port 8Gbit restrictions around intermix. The 48000 must run
blade (FC8-16, FC8-32, FC8-48), and the 6-port Fabric OS v6.0 or later to support the FC8-16 port
10G FC blade (FC10-6) blade and Fabric OS v6.1 or later to support the
FC8-32 and FC8-48 port blades.

Intelligent blade Up to a total of 4 Intelligent blades (includes iSCSI,

FCIP/FCR and Application blade), FC4-16IP, FR4-
18i, and FA4-18 respectively. See below for
intermix limitations, exceptions, and a max of each
blade.

iSCSI blade (FC4-16IP) Up to a maximum of 4 blades of this type

FC-IP/FC Router blade (FR4-18i) Up to a maximum of 2 blades of this type. This can
be extended under special circumstances but must
be approved by Brocade’s Product Team. Up to 8
FR4-18i blades can be installed if they are used only
for FC Fastwrite or FCIP without routing.

Virtualization/Application Blade (FA4-18) Up to a maximum of 2 blades of this type.

Fabric OS v6.1.0 software is fully qualified and supports the blades for the DCX noted in the table below.

DCX Blade Support Matrix

16-, 32- and 48-port 8Gbit port blades (FC8-16, Supported with FOS v6.0 and above with any mix
FC8-32, FC8-48) and the 6-port 10G FC blade and up to 8 of each. No restrictions around intermix.
(FC10-6)

Intelligent blade Up to a total of 8 Intelligent blades. See below for

maximum supported limits of each blade.

FC-IP/FC Router blade (FR4-18i) Up to a maximum of 4 blades of this type. This can
be extended under special circumstances, but must
be approved by Brocade’s Product Team. Up to 8
FR4-18i blades can be installed if they are used only
for FC Fastwrite or FCIP without routing.

Virtualization/Application Blade (FA4-18) Up to a maximum of 4 blades of this type.

Note: the iSCSI FC4-16IP blade is not qualified for the DCX.

Power Supply Requirements for Blades in 48k and DCX Chassis

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 12 of 25

Blades Type of blade 48K DCX Comments
FC 4-16, FC 4-32, Port Blade 2 Power 2 Power • Distribute the Power Supplies
FC 4-48, FC 8-16, Supplies Supplies evenly to 2 different AC
FC 8-32 connections for redundancy
FC10-6, FC 8-48 Port Blade 4 Power 2 Power • Power Supplies must be 220V
Supplies Supplies • Blades must meet minimum FOS
levels to operate in 48K/DCX
FR4-18i, FC4- Intelligent 4 Power 2 Power chassis (e.g. FC8-32 is not
16IP, FA4-18 Blade Supplies Supplies supported in 48K with FOS 6.0.x)

Note: the iSCSI FC4-16IP blade is not qualified for the DCX.

Secure Fabric OS
Secure Fabric OS (SFOS) is not compatible with FOS v6.1. Customers that wish to use the security
features available in SFOS should upgrade to FOS v5.3 or later version, which includes all SFOS features
as part of the base FOS. For environments with SFOS installed on switches that cannot be upgraded to
FOS v5.3 or later version, FC routing can be used to interoperate with FOS v6.1.

FOS Feature Compatibility in Native Connectivity Modes

Some FOS features are not fully supported when operating in the native connectivity modes for
deployment with M-EOS based products. All Brocade models that are supported by Fabric OS v6.1.0
support both intermode 2 and 3 with the exception of the Brocade 4100.
The following table specifies the support of various FOS features when operating in either interopmode 2
(McDATA Fabric Mode) or interopmode 3 (Open Fabric Mode) with Fabric OS v6.1.

FOS Features (supported in interopmode 0) FOS v6.1

IM = Interopmode IM 2 IM 3
L2 FOS Hot Code Load Yes Yes
FOS Hot Code Load with FCR Yes Yes
Zone Activation Support Yes No
1
Traffic Isolation Zones Yes No
1
Frame Redirection (devices attached to FOS) Yes No
Frame Redirection (devices attached to M-EOS) No No
FCR Fabric Binding (route to M-EOS fabric with Fabric binding) Yes Yes
L2 Fabric Binding Yes No*
DCC policies No No
4
SCC policies Yes No*
E/Ex_Port Authentication Yes Yes
2 2
ISL Trunking (frame-level) Yes Yes
3 3
Dynamic Path Selection (DPS, exchange based routing) Yes Yes
Dynamic Load Sharing (DLS, port based routing) Yes Yes
2 2
Virtual Channels (VC RDY) Yes Yes

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 13 of 25

 FICON Management Server (Cascading) Yes No*
FICON MIHPTO Yes No*
Full Scalability (to maximum M-EOS fabric limits) Yes Yes
Adaptive Networking: QoS No No
Adaptive Networking: Ingress Rate Limiting No* No*
Advanced Performance Monitoring (APM) No* No*
APM: TopTalkers No* No*
Admin Domains/Virtual Fabrics No No
6
Secure Fabric OS N/A N/A
Fabric Watch Yes Yes
Ports on Demand (POD) Yes Yes
NPIV Yes Yes
Timer Server function (NTP) No No
7
Open E_Port N/A N/A
Broadcast Zoning No No
FDMI No No
Remote Switch No No
Port Mirroring (8G port mirroring supported in FOS v6.1+) Yes Yes
8
Extended Fabrics Yes Yes
Alias Server No No
Platform Service No No
FCIP (VE_Ports) Yes Yes
9 9
IPFC (IP over FC) Yes Yes
M-EOS ALPA 0x13 configuration Yes Yes
VE to VEX Port Yes Yes
Integrated Routing Yes Yes
Domain Offset Support No No
Masterless F_PORT Trunking (AG connect to FOS switches only) Yes Yes
FC10-6-to-FC10-6 ISL Yes Yes
RASLOG Events on duplicate WWNs Yes Yes

* indicates the feature is available but not officially tested or supported

1. Feature requires M-EOS 9.7 or later.

2. Only allowed between FOS-based switches
3. DPS is supported outbound from FOS-based switches. (M-EOS can provide reciprocal load balancing using
OpenTrunking).
4. SCC policies only supported in conjunction with L2 Fabric Binding support
5. Fabric restriction (refer to FOS v5.2.1_NI release notes)
6. Not supported in FOS 6.0 or later
7. Mode 3 only qualified with M-EOS switches
8. Not on FCR
9. Only supported locally within the FOS switch

Note: FICON Cascaded CUP qualified only on select platforms.

Firmware Upgrades and Downgrades

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 14 of 25

Upgrading to Fabric OS v6.1.0 is only allowed from Fabric OS v6.0.0 or later. This policy to support only
one-level migration, which began with FOS v6.0.0, provides more reliable and robust migrations for
customers. By having fewer major changes in internal databases, configurations, and subsystems, the
system is able to perform the upgrade more efficiently, taking less time and ensuring a truly seamless and
non-disruptive process for the fabric. The new one-release migration policy also reduces the large number
of upgrade/downgrade permutations that must be tested, allowing Brocade to spend more effort ensuring
the supported migration paths are thoroughly and completely verified.

Only products based on 4G and 8G capable ASICs are supported by Fabric OS v6.1. Older products
utilizing previous generation 2G ASICs will remain on the FOS v5.x code stream. FOS v5.x is fully
compatible in fabrics with FOS v6.1, as well as for routing. The Brocade 12000 is not supported with
FOS v5.3.0; it remains supported only on FOS v5.0.x releases.

All products supported by Fabric OS v6.0 can be upgraded to Fabric OS v6.1.

Products that can be upgraded to Fabric OS v6.1:

• 4012/4016/4018/4020/4024/4424, 4100, 4900, 5000, 7500, 7600, 200E, 48000, and DCX.

Scalability
All scalability limits are subject to change. Limits may be increased once further testing has been
completed, even after the release of Fabric OS. For the most current scalability limits for Fabric OS,
refer to the FOS Scalability Matrix document.
Scalability limits for Fabric OS v6.1.0 are essentially the same as those limits supported by FOS v6.0.
Fabrics of up to 6000 virtual or physical connections (WWNs logged into a single fabric) and 56 domains
(domain support is the same as on previous FOS releases) can be supported on DCX and 5300. Other
products running FOS v6.1 will retain the same fabric limits as FOS 5.3.x for non-routed fabrics (i.e., L2
only, 56 domains and 2560-ports).
When operating in Native Connectivity modes (interopmode 2 or 3), different scalability limits are
supported. For both interopmode 2 and 3, fabrics of up to 2048 virtual or physical connections (WWNs
logged into a single fabric) and 31 domains are supported. This is an increase from FOS 6.0 for
intermode 3, which only supported up to 800 connections and 15 domains in a fabric.
Supported FCR scalability limits have increased in a few areas, and some new limits are included to
reflect the new Integrated Routing support. Supported limits are noted in the following table (new
additions and changes since FOS 6.0 are noted in bold).
Routed scalability limits are noted in the table below.

Fibre Channel Routing Scalability (Tested/Supported Limits)

Max # edge fabrics per metaSAN 48/48

Max # edge fabrics per chassis 16/16 (7500 & FR4-18i

in 48k or DCX)
24/32 (5100 & 5300)
24/48 (DCX)

Max # switches per edge fabric (FOS) 26/26

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 15 of 25

 Fibre Channel Routing Scalability (Tested/Supported Limits)
Max # switches per edge fabric (M-EOS fabric) 1 16/ 16

Max # WWNs per edge fabric (M-EOS fabric) 1 800/1500

Max # imported devices per fabric (M-EOS fabric) 1 300/1000

Max # L2 switches per backbone fabric 12/12

Max # FCR’s per backbone fabric 12/12

Max # WWNs per edge fabric (FOS) 1200/1500

Max # WWNs per backbone fabric 512/1024

Max # imported devices per fabric 1000/1000

Max # LSAN device per metaSAN 10000/10000

Max # LSAN zones per metaSAN 3000/30002

Max # devices per LSAN zone 64/64

Max # hops between edge switches 12/12

EX_Ports per FCR (48K/DCX with FR4-18i) 32/32

EX_Ports per FCR (DCX with Integrated Routing) 64/64

EX_Ports per chassis with Integrated Routing 128/80/40 / 128/80/40

(DCX/5300/5100)

Table Notes:
1
M-EOS fabrics must be running M-EOS 9.6.2 firmware or later.
2
All BB FCRs with Fabric OS v6.0.0 and above. For M-EOS edge fabrics prior to v9.6 the limit is
1024 zones. For M-EOS edge fabrics operating with 9.6.x or later, the limit is 2048 zones.

Other Notes:
1) IPFC over FCR is only supported for edge to edge.
2) FC Fast Write is only supported for edge to edge.
3) The backbone cannot run in interopmode 2 (McDATA Native Interop) or 3 (Open mode). It
must be in FOS native mode.
4) All limits apply to Integrated Routing as well as FCR on 7500/FR4-18i unless otherwise noted.

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 16 of 25

FICON Support
FOS v6.1.0 provides full FICON CUP support in FOS/MEOS mixed fabrics operating in
Interop Mode 2. This support is available in fabrics with DCX, 5300, 5100, 6140 and
Mi10k.
FOS v6.1.0 also adds support for configuring the MIHPTO (Missing Interrupt Handler
Primary Timeout) value.
FOS v6.1.0 includes enhanced CUP statistics counters comparable to those supported in
M-EOS.
The FC4-48 and FC8-48 Fibre Channel port blades are not supported to connect to
System z environments via FICON channels or via FCP zLinux on System z. To attach
the Brocade 48000 or DCX to the System z environment, use an FC4-16, FC4-32, FC8-
16 or FC8-32 Fibre Channel port blade.

Other Important Notes and Recommendations

Licensing Behavior:
• When upgrading a switch to Fabric OS v6.1, some licenses may display as “Unknown.” This
is due to changes in licensing requirements for some features that no longer require a license
key.
• When upgrading a Brocade 48000 that has the FCIP license installed, the licenseshow output
may falsely indicate that Integrated Routing is available.
Adaptive Networking/Flow-Based QoS Prioritization:
• When using QoS in a fabric with 4G ports or switches, FOS v6.0 or later must be installed on
all products in order to pass QoS info. E_Ports from the DCX to other switches must come up
AFTER 6.0 is running on those switches.
• Flow based QoS is NOT supported on FC8 blades in the Brocade 48000.
• Any products that are not capable of operating with FOS 6.0 may NOT exist in a fabric with
Flow based QoS. Major problems will occur if previous generation 2G products exist in the
fabric.
FCR Backbone Fabric ID change:
• With FC8 blades, the switch must be disabled to change the backbone fabric ID
• With routing and dual backbone fabrics, the backbone fabric ID must be changed to keep the
IDs unique.
Integrated Routing
• To allow Hot Code Load on a Brocade 5100 when using Integrated Routing, the edge switch
connected to the 5100 must be running Fabric OS v6.1.0 code.
• The Brocade 5100 does not support Hot Code Load from FOS 6.1.0 to 6.1.0x in a dual
backbone configuration with a routed connection to an M-EOS product.
FCS Automatic Distribution
• When using the FCS Automatic Distribution feature in Fabric OS v6.0 or later, all switches in
the fabric must be running FOS v6.0 or later. If any switches are running FOS v5.x or earlier,
only manual distribution can be used.
Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 17 of 25
 • FOS v6.0 or later will only allow FCS automatic distribution when in strict mode, requiring
only switches with FOS v6.0 or later.
Access Gateway
• When in Access Gateway mode, the Automatic Port Configuration policy may not work
when attached to M-EOS switches. M-EOS ports should be set to G_port to prevent
problems with port type discovery.

10G Interoperability
• 10G interop between FC10-6 and McDATA blades is not supported due to a HW limitation,
however the FC10-6 is supported in a chassis running in Interopmode 2 or 3 (FC10-6 to
FC10-6 connections only). An FC10-6 blade will not synchronize with a McDATA 10G
blade but will not negatively impact the system.
Traffic Isolation over FCR
• All switches and Fibre Channel Routers both in edge and backbone fabrics must be running
FOS v6.1.0 in order to support this feature.
• It is essential to have “fail-over” policy ENABLED in all edge fabrics that are part of the
traffic isolation zones, in order for the proper functioning of Traffic Isolation over FCR.
FICON CUP Cascading
• All switches must be running FOS v6.1.0 in order to support this feature
Port Fencing
• Port Fencing is only supported on E_Port and F_Port classes. Port Fencing is available with
the optional Fabric Watch license.

Documentation Updates
This section provides information on last-minute additions and corrections to the
documentation. The most recent Fabric OS v6.1.0 documentation manuals are available
on the Brocade Partner Network: http://partner.brocade.com/

Brocade Fabric OS MIB Reference (Publication Number 53-1000602-02

On page 547, in chapter 5, add the following information to section swSensorTable 1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.2.1.1.1.1.22

Power swNumSensors /
Platform Temp Fans Supply connUnitNumSensors

Brocade
5000 4 2 2 8

Brocade Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide (Publication Number 53-1000598-03

On page 425, in the Administering Extended Fabrics chapter, add the following switches to table 95.
Switch blade ASIC Total ports in a Total buffers / per Reserved buffers
model switch or blade number of ports for ports
4012 Golden Eye 12 272/12 8

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 18 of 25

4016 Golden Eye 16 272/16 8
4018 Golden Eye 18 272/18 8
4020 Golden Eye 20 272/20 8
4024 Golden Eye 24 272/24 8

On page 467 in chapter 20, Configuring and Monitoring FCIP Extension Services, under the heading Constraints for
FC Fastwrite, add the following to the list:
• Connecting E_Ports to ports already configured for FC Fastwrite is not supported.

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide (Publication Number 53-1000605-02)

On page 41 in chapter 3, after the section, Re-joining switches to a fabric, add the following:
Cascaded Fabrics
A cascaded fabric is when you connect two Access Gateways (AG) switches linking one end as an N_Port and the
other end as an F_Port. The AG switch that is directly connected to the fabric is referred to as the Core AG. The AG
that is connected to the device is referred to as the Edge AG. The following figure describes a cascaded Access
Gateway.

Ports are connected between the two AG switches, which are connected to each other. Cascaded AG connections
between devices increase the network use because it provides higher over-subscription while allowing you to
consolidate the number of ports going to the main fabric. There is no license requirement to use this feature.

Configuration restrictions with cascaded Access Gateway switches

• You must enable the Port Grouping (PG) policy on both the Edge and Core AG switches.
• Only one level of cascading is supported. Note that several Edge AGs can connect into a single Core AG
to support higher consolidation ratios.
• AG Trunking between the Edge and Core AG switches is not supported.
• It is recommended that the Advanced Security Policy (ADS) be used on the AG F_ports directly
connected to the servers.

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 19 of 25

Closed Defects in Fabric OS v6.1.0a
This section lists defects closed in Fabric OS v6.1.0a. Note that when a workaround to an issue is available, it is
provided.

Defect ID Technical Closed Defects in Fabric OS v6.1.0a

Severity
DEFECT000206188 High Summary: During storage failover/failback test with IP over FC, traffic stops
and fails to recover in single and dual backbone configurations.
Symptom: IP over FC traffic across FCR stops and does not recover.
Workaround: Disable and enable both IP-over-FC devices.
Feature: FCR
Function: FCR Daemon

Risk of Fix: Low

Probability: Low
Reported in Release: FOS6.0.0
DEFECT000208573 High Summary: Under rare conditions, fabric mode TopTalker monitor does not
display correct flow values.
Symptom: Fabric mode TT monitor counters show 0 when traffic is running
thru the switch.
Feature: Fabric Infrastructure

Function: Advanced Performance Monitor

Risk of Fix: Low
Probability: Medium
Reported in Release: FOS6.1.0

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 20 of 25

 Defect ID Technical Closed Defects in Fabric OS v6.1.0a
Severity
DEFECT000208578 High Summary: Attempting to configure port mirroring on a director with both 4G
and 8G blades may result in a software Verify error.
Symptom: When configuring a port mirror, a software verify error may be seen.
Feature: Platform Services

Function: C2 ASIC driver

Risk of Fix: Low
Probability: Low
Reported in Release: FOS6.1.0
DEFECT000209343 High Summary: After repeatedly running bladedisable/enable on one FC8-48 blade
for 6 hours, a Brocade DCX panics.
Symptom: May see DCX panic with "ASSERT - Failed expression: vfid <=
((0x709000-0x708000)/4), file = /../asic/condor2/c2_vf.c, line = 193, ...
Workaround: After the switch comes back up, reboot the switch.
Feature: DCX Platform Services
Function: ASIC Driver
Risk of Fix: Low
Probability: Low
Reported in Release: FOS6.1.0
DEFECT000210703 High Summary: FCR matrix settings may not persist after hafailover on a Brocade
48000.

Symptom: FCR matrix settings may not persist after hafailover on dual CP
systems.
Feature: FCR
Function: FCR HA
Risk of Fix: Low
Probability: Low
Reported in Release: FOS6.1.0
DEFECT000211609 High Summary: When disabling/enabling a port, port fencing disables the port
because the allowable number of invalid transmission words is exceeded.
Symptom: Port is disabled because of invalid transmission words that occurred
when the port was offline.
Feature: Fabric Infrastructure
Function: Fabric Watch
Risk of Fix: Low
Probability: High
Reported in Release: FOS6.1.0

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 21 of 25

 Defect ID Technical Closed Defects in Fabric OS v6.1.0a
Severity
DEFECT000211624 High Summary: In larger fabrics, Ex-ports toggled offline/online during HCL
(hareboot) of a Brocade 5100 or 5300.
Symptom: During non-disruptive firmwaredownload, Ex-ports may toggle,
causing traffic disruption.
Feature: FCR
Function: C2_EX
Risk of Fix: Low
Probability: Medium
Reported in Release: FOS6.1.0
DEFECT000211697 High Summary: ag --show on a Brocade 300 shows incorrect edge switch IP address
after a slave port is swapped with an N-port outside of the trunk group.
Symptom: "ag --show" on a Brocade 300 shows incorrect edge switch IP
address.
Workaround: Reboot the switch: ag --show cli will show the correct output.

Feature: Access Gateway Services

Function: CLI
Risk of Fix: Medium

Probability: High
Reported in Release: FOS6.1.0
DEFECT000212267 High Summary: Under rare conditions, a Brocade DCX panics during SAK IRNDUP
when the software watchdog detects an unexpected termination of the FICON
CUP daemon (ficud).
Symptom: Interface Control Checks.
Feature: FC Services

Function: FICON
Risk of Fix: Low
Probability: Medium

Reported in Release: FOS6.1.0

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 22 of 25

 Defect ID Technical Closed Defects in Fabric OS v6.1.0a
Severity
DEFECT000212379 High Summary: Configuration Download fails for Fabric Watch parameter changes
in NI mode.
Symptom: FW parameter changes in NI mode require a switchdisable.
Workaround: Switchdisable, then configure the FW parameters.

Feature: Native Interop

Function: Other
Risk of Fix: Low
Probability: High
Reported in Release: FOS6.1.0
DEFECT000205596 Medium Summary: Port Based Routing with DLS ON does not immediately balance the
load when adding an ISL.
Symptom: New ISL is not utilized, but the routes are recovered after the CPU
cycles.
Feature: DCX Platform Services
Function: Routing
Risk of Fix: High
Probability: Low
Reported in Release: FOS6.0.0
DEFECT000211313 Medium Summary: Ex-port fails to come online after downgrading firmware from FOS
v6.x to v5.3 under certain conditions.

Symptom: This will happen if there is no Ex-port on the switch before

downloading.
Feature: FOS Software
Function: FCR
Risk of Fix: Low
Probability: Low
Service Request # : 301927
Reported in Release: FOS5.3.0

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 23 of 25

 Defect ID Technical Closed Defects in Fabric OS v6.1.0a
Severity
DEFECT000211900 Medium Summary: Warnings of excessive high temperature could be seen on some
5100 switches.
Symptom: Excessive high temperature warnings could be seen on some 5100
switches. Could also see switch status change to marginal: ...WARNING,
Brocade5100, High temperature (36 C), fan speed increasing per environmental
specifications.
Workaround: Increase cooling or relocate switch to cooler location. Be sure
switch is installed with proper spacing above and below the switch.
Feature: System Controls/EM
Function: Brocade 5100
Risk of Fix: Low
Probability: Low
Reported in Release: FOS6.1.0
DEFECT000212509 Medium Summary: After hareboot, "Probing failed" on F-port messages may be seen on
the Brocade 300, 5100, and 5300.

Symptom: Some device ports will not be able to complete login to the switch
after a firmware upgrade.
Feature: Brocade 5300 Platform Services
Function: ASIC Port
Risk of Fix: Low

Probability: High
Reported in Release: FOS6.1.0
DEFECT000213198 Medium Summary: Fastwrite performance issue with a particular FCIP ex-port
configuration.
Symptom: Unable to reap performance benefits with fastwrite on an FCIP ex-
port configuration.
Workaround: Disable FCR routing and Ex-ports and merge the fabric into one
large fabric.
Feature: FCIP
Function: FCIP Performance
Risk of Fix: Low
Reported in Release: FOS6.0.0

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 24 of 25

 Defect ID Technical Closed Defects in Fabric OS v6.1.0a
Severity
DEFECT000213344 Medium Summary: Under rare conditions, ISL may get stuck at G-Port on the Brocade
300 and 5300 switches.
Symptom: Port state shown as G-port.
Feature: Platform Services

Function: ASIC Driver

Risk of Fix: Low
Probability: Low
Reported in Release: FOS6.1.0
DEFECT000213729 Medium Summary: Launching Switch Throughput graph in Performance monitor for
Brocade 300, 5100 and 5300: the values in X-axis are shown only for 4.0G/sec.
Symptom: Throughput graph will not display 8G/sec values.
Feature: WebMgmt
Function: Performance Monitor

Risk of Fix: Low

Probability: High
Reported in Release: FOS6.1.1
DEFECT000216814 Medium Summary: On a Brocade 5300, the system status LED does not flash
amber/green when a power supply is faulted.

Symptom: Instead of flashing amber/green, it remains a steady green.

Feature: System Controls/EM
Function: Brocade 5300

Risk of Fix: Low

Probability: High
Service Request # : 312559
Reported in Release: FOS6.1.0

Fabric OS v6.1.0a Release Notes, v2.0 Page 25 of 25