vSphere Storage - ESXi 5.0 - Documentation - VMware

vSphere Storage
n Turn on Priority-based Flow Control (PFC) and set it to AUTO.
VMware recommends that you use the following firmware on the FCoE switch:
n Cisco Nexus 5000: version 4.1(3)N2 or higher.
n Brocade FCoE switch: version 6.3.1 or higher.
Network Adapter Best Practices
If you plan to enable software FCoE adapters to work with network adapters, specific considerations apply.
n Make sure that the latest microcode is installed on the FCoE network adapter.
n If the network adapter has multiple ports, when configuring networking, add each port to a separate
vSwitch. This practice helps you to avoid an APD condition when a disruptive event, such as an MTU
change, occurs.
n Do not move a network adapter port from one vSwitch to another when FCoE traffic is active. If you need
to make this change, reboot your host afterwards.
n If you changed the vSwitch for a network adapter port and caused a failure, moving the port back to the
original vSwitch resolves the problem.
Set Up Networking for Software FCoE
Before you activate the software FCoE adapters, you need to connect the VMkernel to physical FCoE NICs
installed on your host.
Procedure
1 Log in to the vSphere Client, and select a host from the inventory panel.
2 Click the Configuration tab and click Networking.
3 In the vSphere standard switch view, click Add Networking.
4 Select VMkernel and click Next.
5 Select Create a vSphere standard switch to create a new vSphere standard switch.
6 Select the network adapter (vmnic#) that supports FCoE and click Next.
If your host has multiple network adapters or multiple ports on the adapter, you can add all of them to a
single vSphere standard switch. An alternative is to connect each FCoE NIC to a separate standard switch.
NOTE ESXi 5.0 supports the maximum of four network adapter ports used for software FCoE.
7 Enter a network label.
Network label is a friendly name that identifies the VMkernel adapter that you are creating, for example,
FCoE.
8 Specify a VLAN ID and click Next.
Because FCoE traffic requires an isolated network, make sure that the VLAN ID you enter is different from
the one used for regular networking on your host. For more information, see the vSphere Networking
documentation.
9 Specify the IP settings and click Next.
10 Review the information and click Finish.
You have created the virtual VMkernel adapter for the physical FCoE network adapter installed on your host.
NOTE To avoid FCoE traffic disruptions, do not remove the FCoE network adapter (vmnic#) from the vSphere
standard switch after you set up FCoE networking.
38 VMware, Inc.