Avatar of Arthur Wang
Arthur Wang
Flag for United States of America

asked on 

Change Cisco 9148s F port into FL port failed

Hi, everyone,

I am trying to configure a Cisco MDS 9148s fiber channel switch. Everything looks good:

cisco9148s51# show interface brief

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interface  Vsan   Admin  Admin   Status       SFP    Oper  Oper   Port
                  Mode   Trunk                       Mode  Speed  Channel
                         Mode                              (Gbps)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fc1/1      2      auto   on      up           swl   F      16     --       
fc1/2      2      auto   on      up           swl   F      16     --       
fc1/3      2      auto   on      up           swl   F      16     --       
fc1/4      2      auto   on      up           swl   F      16     --       
fc1/5      2      auto   on      up           swl   F      16     --       
fc1/6      2      auto   on      sfpAbsent    --     --    --     --       
fc1/7      2      auto   on      sfpAbsent    --     --    --     --       
fc1/8      2      auto   on      sfpAbsent    --     --    --     --       
fc1/9      2      auto   on      sfpAbsent    --     --    --     --       
fc1/10     2      auto   on      sfpAbsent    --     --    --     --       
fc1/11     2      auto   on      up           swl   F      16     --       
fc1/12     2      auto   on      up           swl   F      16     --       
fc1/13     1      auto   on      sfpAbsent    --     --    --     --       
fc1/14     1      auto   on      sfpAbsent    --     --    --     --       

Open in new window


For Interface fc1/11 and fc1/12, each has fiber cable connected to the storage HP MSA 2052 controller( The MSA has two controller:A and B)

Based on my past experience and this link below:

https://overlaid.net/2014/08/16/fibre-channel-fc-basics-for-ccie-dc/

Screen-Shot-2018-01-27-at-9.34.54-PM.png
The fc1/11 and fc1/12 should be configured as FL mode instead of F mode though the Switch auto negotiated into F.
Now I am trying to change it from F mode into FL mode:

cisco9148s51# config t
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
cisco9148s51(config)# interface fc1/11
cisco9148s51(config-if)# switchport mode FL
cisco9148s51(config-if)# show interface brief

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interface  Vsan   Admin  Admin   Status       SFP    Oper  Oper   Port
                  Mode   Trunk                       Mode  Speed  Channel
                         Mode                              (Gbps)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fc1/1      2      auto   on      up           swl   F      16     --       
fc1/2      2      auto   on      up           swl   F      16     --       
fc1/3      2      auto   on      up           swl   F      16     --       
fc1/4      2      auto   on      up           swl   F      16     --       
fc1/5      2      auto   on      up           swl   F      16     --       
fc1/6      2      auto   on      sfpAbsent    --     --    --     --       
fc1/7      2      auto   on      sfpAbsent    --     --    --     --       
fc1/8      2      auto   on      sfpAbsent    --     --    --     --       
fc1/9      2      auto   on      sfpAbsent    --     --    --     --       
fc1/10     2      auto   on      sfpAbsent    --     --    --     --       
fc1/11     2      FL     --      notConnected swl    --    --     --       
fc1/12     2      auto   on      up           swl   F      16     --       
fc1/13     1      auto   on      sfpAbsent    --     --    --     --       
fc1/14     1      auto   on      sfpAbsent    --     --    --     --  

Open in new window


The service obviously was interruped.  
fc1/11     2      FL     --      notConnected swl    --    --     --       

Open in new window



When I set the mode back to AUTO,  the service was recovered.

My questions is: Why would the interface fc1/11 and fc1/12 become "notConnected" after changing them into FL mode? isn't FL the right mode for these two interfaces? (because they both are connected to the controller of the storage.)

The reason I want to do this change is  becaues the MSA 2052 only see 5 of the HOST WWN, but I actually connected 10 servers to 4 switches, should have 20 HOST WWN show up in the MSA 2052. I feel the fc1/11 and fc/12 interfaces might be the problem because my old SAN which use two MDS 9124 configured fc1/7 and fc1/8 as the FL mode.

Anyone has experience to configure both this Cisco MDS 9148s and HP MSA 2052 storage?
StorageCiscoNetwork Architecture

Avatar of undefined
Last Comment
Arthur Wang

8/22/2022 - Mon