IBM Support

Recommended port fillword setting for 8Gbps Brocade switches with 8Gbps Systems

Preventive Service Planning


Abstract

Starting with FOS levels v6.2.0, v6.2.0a & v6.2.0b, Brocade introduced arbff-arbff as the new default fillword setting. This caused problems with any connected 8Gb SVC ports and these levels are unsupported for use with SVC, Storwize V7000 or Storwize V7000 Unified.
In 6.2.0c Brocade reintroduced idle-idle as the default fillword and the also added the ability to change the fillword setting from the default of idle-idle to arbff-arbff using the portcfgfillword command. For levels between 6.2.0c and 6.3.1 the setting for SVC, Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 Unified should remain at default mode 0.
From FOS v6.3.1a onwards Brocade added two new fillword modes with mode 3 being the new preferred mode which works with all 8Gb devices. This is the recommended setting for SVC, Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 Unified.

Content




This affects the following IBM/Brocade switches:

IBM ModelBrocade Model
2498-B24 Brocade 300
2498-B40 Brocade 5100
2498-B80 Brocade 5300
2499-192 Brocade DCX-4S
2499-384 Brocade DCX



Recommendations
The recommended solution is to use FOS v6.3.1a or above and ensure all 8Gb SVC, Storwize V7000 or Storwize V7000 Unified ports are set to use fillword mode 3.

Note
This only affects 8Gbps switch ports with SVC, Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 Unified devices connecting at 8Gb port speeds, if using 4Gb or below with SVC, Storwize V7000 or Storwize V7000 Unified the fillword settings can still be set to 3 and this mode will be used if and when the fabric or SVC, Storwize V7000 or Storwize V7000 Unified are upgraded to 8Gbps.

Instructions
1) To check the fillword mode setting for a particular port use the portcfgshow command:

example:
IBM_2499_192:FID128:admin> portcfgshow 1/0
Area Number: 0
Speed Level: AUTO(HW)
Fill Word: 3(A-A then SW I-A)
AL_PA Offset 13: OFF
------------------- cut -------------------

2) To change the fillword mode setting for a port use the portcfgfillword command:

example (setting fillword mode 3 on blade 1 port 0):
portCfgFillWord 1/0 3


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Document Information

Modified date:
28 March 2023

UID

ssg1S1003699