cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
5287
Views
10
Helpful
3
Replies

Maximum Distance for FCOE

AMD_GAMER
Level 1
Level 1

We are looking to deploy two Nexus 7009 cores at our two datacenters. They are approximately 2 miles apart. We are hoping to have 10G Dark Fiber between the buildings and therefore dedicate a pair for FCOE between the cores using 10G Long Range SFP's. I read that the Nexus 5000 series had a limit of ~3 km for FCOE. Does the same hold true for the 7000 series? I thought I read somehwere that the buffers were larger on the 7000 series and therefore would be able to do ~30 km.

Would love to hear feedback of people doing FCOE between datacenters. Thanks.

Dave

3 Replies 3

Pulkit Nagpal
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

I referenced those SFP's, but those are just long range and extended range single mode fiber transrceviers. It appears both the 5000 and 7000 nexus switches support 10G transceivers.  However, I believe FCOE has different maximum distances. The link below has FAQ for FCOE. In there, it says the maximum distance for Nexus 55xx to 55xx is only 3km. However, the 7000 series is not listed.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-15882

2. Is FCoE between data centers possible?

Yes,  FCoE between Data Centers is possible. VE Ports allow you to build   multi-hop FCoE fabrics by interconnecting multiple FCF, VE port  functions as a  Fibre Channel E-port running on top of a lossless  Ethernet fabric. The maximum  distance between two Cisco Nexus 5000  Series switches is 3000m for FCoE  (lossless Ethernet) traffic with  NX-OS 5.0(2)N1.1. It can be enabled using the  pause no-drop buffer-size buffer-size pause-thresholdxoff-size resume-threshold xon-size command in QOS configuration. Here are the maximum  distances:

Nexus 55xx to Nexus 55xx - 3km

Nexus 50x0 to Nexus 50x0 - 3km

Nexus 50x0 to Nexus 55xx - 3km

Nexus 55xx to Nexus 2232 - 300m

Nexus 50x0 to Nexus 2232 - 300m

I found a few more articles that touch on FCOE distances, but all of them revolve around the Nexus 5000 series.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2108814

https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2128629

https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3548524#3548524

https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2141340

Dave

We have deployed the 7K's at our two datacenters and have FCOE running without an issue. We are running 10G-ER transceviers with a distance of 13km. We are seeing no issues. Maybe this will help someone in the future.

Dave

Getting Started

Find answers to your questions by entering keywords or phrases in the Search bar above. New here? Use these resources to familiarize yourself with the community: