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25.5. Configuring a Fibre Channel over Ethernet Interface

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Setting up and deploying a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) interface requires two packages:
  • fcoe-utils
  • lldpad
Once these packages are installed, perform the following procedure to enable FCoE over a virtual LAN (VLAN):

Procedure 25.10. Configuring an Ethernet Interface to Use FCoE

  1. To configure a new VLAN, make a copy of an existing network script, for example /etc/fcoe/cfg-eth0, and change the name to the Ethernet device that supports FCoE. This provides you with a default file to configure. Given that the FCoE device is ethX, run:
    # cp /etc/fcoe/cfg-ethx  /etc/fcoe/cfg-ethX
    Modify the contents of cfg-ethX as needed. Notably, set DCB_REQUIRED to no for networking interfaces that implement a hardware Data Center Bridging Exchange (DCBX) protocol client.
  2. If you want the device to automatically load during boot time, set ONBOOT=yes in the corresponding /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethX file. For example, if the FCoE device is eth2, edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth2 accordingly.
  3. Start the data center bridging daemon (dcbd) by running:
    # systemctl start lldpad
    
  4. For networking interfaces that implement a hardware DCBX client, skip this step.
    For interfaces that require a software DCBX client, enable data center bridging on the Ethernet interface by running:
    # dcbtool sc ethX dcb on
    
    Then, enable FCoE on the Ethernet interface by running:
    # dcbtool sc ethX app:fcoe e:1
    
    Note that these commands only work if the dcbd settings for the Ethernet interface were not changed.
  5. Load the FCoE device now using:
    # ip link set dev ethX up
    
  6. Start FCoE using:
    # systemctl start fcoe
    
    The FCoE device appears soon if all other settings on the fabric are correct. To view configured FCoE devices, run:
    # fcoeadm -i
    
After correctly configuring the Ethernet interface to use FCoE, Red Hat recommends that you set FCoE and the lldpad service to run at startup. To do so, use the systemctl utility:
# systemctl enable lldpad
# systemctl enable fcoe

Note

Running the # systemctl stop fcoe command stops the daemon, but does not reset the configuration of FCoE interfaces. To do so, run the # systemctl -s SIGHUP kill fcoe command.
As of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Network Manager has the ability to query and set the DCB settings of a DCB capable Ethernet interface.
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