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Brocade Fabric OS v7.1.0a
Release Notes v1.0
January 22, 2013
Document History
Document Title
Summary of Changes
Publication Date
Brocade Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0
Initial Release
January 22, 2013

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 2 of 41
© 2013 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
ADX, AnyIO, Brocade, Brocade Assurance, the B-wing symbol, DCX, Fabric OS, ICX, MLX, MyBrocade,
OpenScript, VCS, VDX, and Vyatta are registered trademarks, and HyperEdge, The Effortless Network, and The
On-Demand Data Center are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States
and/or in other countries. Other brands, products, or service names mentioned may be trademarks of their
respective owners.
Notice: This document is for informational purposes only and does not set forth any warranty, expressed or
implied, concerning any equipment, equipment feature, or service offered or to be offered by Brocade. Brocade
reserves the right to make changes to this document at any time, without notice, and assumes no
responsibility for its use. This informational document describes features that may not be currently available.
Contact a Brocade sales office for information on feature and product availability. Export of technical data
contained in this document may require an export license from the United States government.

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 3 of 41
Contents
Overview ...................................................................................................................................................... 5
Warning –Applicable only if upgrading from FOS v7.1.0:..................................................................................... 5
Quick Look...................................................................................................................................................5
New Hardware Support...............................................................................................................................5
Summary of New Software Features.........................................................................................................6
New Feature Descriptions..........................................................................................................................7
Diagnostic Port (D_Port) Enhancements................................................................................................................ 7
In-Flight Encryption and Compression Enhancements.......................................................................................... 7
FEC (Forward Error Correction) Support Enhancements ....................................................................................... 8
Performance Optimization on FC Long Distance ISLs ........................................................................................... 8
FOS Security Enhancements................................................................................................................................... 8
FCIP Enhancements ................................................................................................................................................ 9
Scalability Enhancements ....................................................................................................................................... 9
Fabric Services Enhancements .............................................................................................................................. 9
FCR Enhancements ............................................................................................................................................... 10
Access Gateway Enhancements ........................................................................................................................... 11
Various RAS Enhancements.................................................................................................................................. 11
Encryption Platform Enhancements ..................................................................................................................... 13
Miscellaneous Enhancements.............................................................................................................................. 14
Optionally Licensed Software..................................................................................................................16
Temporary License Support ....................................................................................................................18
Other Licensing Changes.........................................................................................................................18
Supported Switches..................................................................................................................................19
Standards Compliance.............................................................................................................................19
Technical Support.....................................................................................................................................19
FOS Migration Considerations ................................................................................................................21
FOS Upgrade and Downgrade Special Considerations........................................................................................ 21
Recommended Migration Paths to FOS v7.1.0a ................................................................................................. 21
Important Notes.........................................................................................................................................23
Brocade Network Advisor Compatibility ............................................................................................................... 23
DCFM Compatibility ............................................................................................................................................... 23
WebTools Compatibility ......................................................................................................................................... 24
SMI Compatibility................................................................................................................................................... 24
Fabric OS Compatibility ......................................................................................................................................... 24
Blade Support............................................................................................................................................26
Scalability...................................................................................................................................................31
Other Important Notes and Recommendations .....................................................................................31
Adaptive Networking/Flow-Based QoS Prioritization ........................................................................................... 31
Access Gateway ..................................................................................................................................................... 31

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 4 of 41
Brocade HBA/Adapter Compatibility .................................................................................................................... 32
D-Port...................................................................................................................................................................... 32
Encryption Behavior for the Brocade Encryption Switch (BES) and FS8-18 ...................................................... 32
FCIP (Brocade 7800 and FX8-24)......................................................................................................................... 35
FCoE/DCB/CEE (Brocade 8000 and FCOE10-24)............................................................................................... 35
FCR and Integrated Routing .................................................................................................................................. 37
Forward Error Correction (FEC) ............................................................................................................................. 37
FICON...................................................................................................................................................................... 37
FL_Port (Loop) Support.......................................................................................................................................... 37
ICLs on DCX/DCX-4S ............................................................................................................................................. 38
Native Connectivity (M-EOS interoperability)........................................................................................................ 38
Port Initialization .................................................................................................................................................... 38
Port Mirroring ......................................................................................................................................................... 38
Port Statistics......................................................................................................................................................... 38
Virtual Fabrics ........................................................................................................................................................ 39
Zoning..................................................................................................................................................................... 39
Miscellaneous ........................................................................................................................................................ 39
Defects .......................................................................................................................................................41
Closed with Code Change in Fabric OS v7.1.0a................................................................................................... 41

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 5 of 41
Overview
Fabric OS (FOS) v7.1.0a is a patch release based on FOS v7.1.0. All hardware platforms and features
supported in FOS v7.1.0 are also supported in FOS v7.1.0a.
Warning –Applicable only if upgrading from FOS v7.1.0:
Before upgrading the firmware to FOS v7.1.0a from FOS v7.1.0, you must run the supportSave command to
save any existing error log information. Once the switch is upgraded to FOS v7.1.0a, any previously existing
error log entries on the switch will be permanently lost - only new error log entries created while running FOS
v7.1.0a will be retained.
Note: This warning is not applicable if the current firmware version is not FOS v7.1.0. For example, if the
upgrade is being performed from FOS v7.0.x or FOS v6.4.x to FOS v7.1.0a, the existing error log entries will be
preserved even after upgrading to FOS v7.1.0a. Please refer to “FOS Migration Considerations” section of this
document for additional considerations.
Quick Look
If you are already using the most recent version of the Fabric OS v7.1.0 Release Notes, the following are the
significant changes in this version:
The table at the end of these notes contains a list of the additional defects closed with Fabric OS
v7.1.0a since the release of Fabric OS v7.1.0.
New Hardware Support
FOS v7.1 introduces support for the following new 16G FC hardware platform:
Brocade 6520 Enterprise class FC switch platform that offers the following capabilities:
Supports 96 x 16G FC front end ports that support 2G/4G/8G/10G/16G speeds
48-port base switch with two 24-port Ports-On-Demand (POD) licenses
Supports all key software functionalities applicable to a high end enterprise class FC switch:
Trunking, Extended Fabrics, Fabric Watch, APM, Integrated Routing, NPIV, Virtual
Fabrics, and much more.
Advanced functionality unique to 16G FC platforms–D_Port diagnostics, In-flight
encryption/compression, VC level automatic buffer credit recovery, FEC, etc.
The following functionalities are not supported on Brocade 6520:
Does not support Access Gateway functionality
Does not support FICON
FOS v7.1 also supports increased distance for the optical ICLs on the DCX 8510 platforms:
Increased distance support for the optical ICLs up to 100m on the DCX 8510 (previously supported
distance limit was 50m). This requires QSFPs that support up to 100m and OM4 fiber.
Note:
FOS v7.1 supports all hardware platforms supported by FOS v7.0.x. However, FOS v7.1 does not support FR4-
18i and FC10-6 blades in the DCX/DCX-4S.

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 6 of 41
Summary of New Software Features
In addition to new hardware support, FOS v7.1 also includes support for several software features and
enhancements:
Diagnostic Port (D_Port) enhancements
D_Port on optical ICLs of the DCX 8510 platforms
New D_Port test options –users can specify number of frames, frame size, test
duration, etc.
Full D_Port support between Brocade 16G Adapter and 16G FC switch (requires
Brocade adapter driver version 3.2 or later)
D_Port between Access Gateway (enabled on 16G FC platform) and 16G FC switch
In-flight encryption and compression enhancements
FEC (Forward Error Correction) support enhancements
Performance optimization enhancements on FC long distance ISLs
FOS security enhancements
Addition of TACACS+ support
Support for Open LDAP
FCIP platform enhancements
Virtual Fabrics support on the Brocade 7800 platform
IPsec support on VE ports 22-31 of FX8-24 (supported only on new FX8-24 SKUs)
Various FCIP RAS enhancements
Scalability Enhancement: Support for up to 2MB zone database in a fabric with only
DCX/DCX-4S/DCX8510 systems (the presence of any other platform will limit the maximum
zone database to 1MB)
Fabric Services enhancements
Zoning enhancements
Name Server enhancements
FDMI (Fabric Device Management Interface) enhancements
FCR enhancements
Access Gateway enhancements
Various RAS (Reliability Availability Serviceability) enhancements
Encryption platform (BES/FS8-18) enhancements
Miscellaneous enhancements

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 7 of 41
New Feature Descriptions
Diagnostic Port (D_Port) Enhancements
FOS v7.1 implements the following enhancements to the D_Port functionality:
Support for D_Port on optical ICL ports of DCX 8510
New D_Port test options
D_Port between 16G Access Gateway and 16G FC Switch
D_Port between 16G Switch and Brocade 16G FC Adapter
Support for D_Port on Optical ICL ports of DCX 8510
FOS v7.1 implements D_Port functionality on the optical ICL ports of the DCX 8510 platforms. This support
however does not include Electrical and Optical loop-back functionality as these are not supported by the
QSFPs used on the optical ICLs ports.
New D_Port Test Options
New options are added to extend the D_Port functionality in FOS v7.1.0. These allow users to specify the
following options such as the number of frames, frame size, data pattern, duration of the test, etc. while
running the D_Port test
D_Port between 16G Access Gateway and 16G FC Switch
FOS v7.1 adds D_Port support on 16G platforms configured as Access Gateways (AG).
The supported configurations are:
D_Port between 16G AG and 16G switch
D_Port Between 16G AG and another 16G AG
D_Port between 16G Switch and Brocade 16G FC Adapter
FOS v7.1.0 enhances the D_Port support between a Brocade 16G FC Adapter and a Brocade 16G FC switch.
This enhancement includes support for the Dynamic D_Port mode which does not require any D_Port
configuration at the adapter. This functionality also requires Brocade HBA driver v3.2.
In-Flight Encryption and Compression Enhancements
FOS v7.1 implements the following enhancements for the In-flight Encryption/Compression features:
Increase the number of Encryption/Compression ports based on port speed –For any supported 16G
blade or 16G switch, the number of ports supported for Encryption/Compression at 8G speed is twice
the number of ports supported at 16G speed.
In-flight Encryption/Compression with port decommissioning –Starting with FOS v7.1 users can
enable port decommissioning on a port that also has in-flight Encryption/Compression enabled.
In-flight Encryption/Compression on EX_Ports - Note that this feature requires 16G capable ports at
both ends of the link.
Ability to display compression ratio –The portstatsshow command is enhanced to display
compression ratio on a compression enabled port.
Ability to display port speed –The portenccompshow command is enhanced to display the port speed
of Encryption/Compression enabled ports

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 8 of 41
FEC (Forward Error Correction) Support Enhancements
FEC Support on Additional Links
With FOS v7.1 FEC support is extended as follows:
FEC support on links between 16G switch and 16G AG
FEC support on links between 16G switch and Brocade 16G HBA (requires HBA driver 3.2 or
later)
FEC support on links between a pair 16G AGs (for cascaded Access Gateway Configurations)
FEC support on links between 16G AG and Brocade 16G HBA (requires HBA driver 3.2 or
later)
Note:
In FOS v7.0.x FEC is supported only on the 16G FC ISLs.
Enable or Disable FEC for Long Distance Port
FOS v7.1 allows users to enable or disable the FEC feature while configuring a long distance
link. This allows end users to turn off FEC where it is not recommended, such as when
configuring active DWDM links.
Performance Optimization on FC Long Distance ISLs
Several enhancements are made in FOS v7.1 to allow users to optimize performance on FC long distance ISLs.
These enhancements include:
Two new options for the portcfglongdistance command - one option to configure the number of
buffers, and another option to configure the frame size for LD and LS modes.
Display of average buffer usage and average frame size in portbuffershow output
A new command portBufferCalc, to calculate the number of buffers required on a long distance port,
by providing the distance, speed and average frame size.
FOS Security Enhancements
TACACS+ Support
In addition to RADIUS and LDAP, FOS v7.1 also supports TACACS+ for user authentication and authorization.
Support includes:
Allowing users to login to FOS switches using user accounts configured in the TACACS+ server.
Allowing users to configure the TACACS+ server configuration using the “aaaconfig” command.
Open LDAP Support
Starting with FOS v7.1, OpenLDAP server based authentication is supported for FOS platforms. When
configured with the correct CA certificate(s), the complete LDAP session will be encrypted using TLS.
Miscellaneous LDAP Enhancements
Previous to FOS v7.1, complete “userPrincipalName” was mandatory for user authentication. Starting with FOS
v7.1, users need not provide the domain part of the “userPrincipalName”.
Support for Password Expiration Policy per User
FOS v7.1 allows the password expiration policy to be configured on a per user basis. User accounts without
this configuration will take the global password expiration configuration.

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 9 of 41
Sorting Security Policy Member List
In a strict fabric wide consistency policy, if the security policy members are not in the same order, a
newly joined switch will be segmented. To avoid segmentation of ports due to member list order
mismatch, the security policy members are sorted by default. Newly added members to existing
policies will also be sorted.
FCIP Enhancements
FOS v7.1 implements the following FCIP features and enhancements:
Virtual Fabrics (VF) support on the Brocade 7800
FOS v7.1 adds Virtual Fabrics (VF) support on the 7800 platform with support for up to four logical switches.
However, the 7800 VF configuration does not support Base Switch functionality or XISL usage.
Enable IP Security on XGE0 of an FX8-24 blade
FOS v7.1 adds IPsec support for the XGE0 port of an FX8-24 blade. This enables creation of IP Security
enabled FCIP tunnels on VE ports 12-21 of an FX8-24 blade. Please note that this functionality requires the
new FX8-24 hardware SKU that supports this functionality.
FCIP Tunnel TCP Statistics Monitoring Enhancements
In FOS v7.1 two new sub-options (reset and lifetime) have been added to the “portshow fciptunnel” and
“portshow fcipcircuit” commands. The “--reset” option allows the user to start a new statistical checkpoint for
the tunnel, circuits and the TCP connections while the “--lifetime” option allows the user to see statistics
related to the lifetime of the tunnel, circuits and TCP connections.
These enhancements allow users to see statistics that represent a specific time period for tunnel(s), circuit(s)
and TCP connections.
FCIP Enforcement of ED_TOV (Error Detection Time Out Value) for FC frames
Starting with FOS v7.1, FCIP will enforce an internal queue time limit (of 2 seconds) for all FCIP received FC
frames to address issues in congested networks. This ensures that no old FC sequences will be forwarded to
the destination if the age (queue time) of the FC frame on an FCIP FC send queue exceeds 2 seconds.
CLI to Display GE Port Errors
FOS v7.1 implements a new command gePortErrShow that shows GE ports and their statistics.
FCIP RASlog Enhancements
FOS v7.1 implements the following FCIP RASlog enhancements:
Improved FCIP RASlog messages in a Virtual Fabrics environment
FCIP RASlogs to be logged against the correct Logical Switch or chassis
Minimize the creation of FICON Emulation RASlog messages (applies to the FICN-XXXX RASlog
messages)
Scalability Enhancements
Support for up to 2MB zone database in a fabric with only DCX/DCX-4S/DCX8510 systems (the
presence of any other platform in the fabric will limit the maximum zone database to 1MB for the
entire fabric).
Fabric Services Enhancements
FOS v7.1 implements various fabric services enhancements in the following areas:
Zoning enhancements

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 10 of 41
Name Server enhancements
FDMI (Fabric Device Management Interface) enhancements
Zoning Enhancements
The zoning enhancements in FOS v7.1 are as follows:
Ability to replace a zone member (WWN/D, I) by another member via the zoneobjectreplace command.
Enhancement to the existing commands (zoneCreate, zoneAdd, zoneRemove) to take a collection of
zone aliases as an input instead of a single alias member. The group of aliases is selected by
matching a pattern specified by the user in the command line.
Provide more options to the existing commands, zoneshow and cfgshow, to list details/differences
between the transaction buffer and the committed/saved zone database.
Warn users at the time of cfgSave, if the zone database edits in the open zone transaction will make
the Defined and Effective Zone configurations inconsistent. This warning reduces the risk of having
mismatched effective zone configurations in the same fabric when merging a switch into the fabric.
Warn or notify users, when multiple users attempt to simultaneously configure or reconfigure zone
sets in more than one switch of a fabric.
Name Server Enhancements
The following are Name Server commands enhancements in FOS v7.1:
Enhancement to the nsZoneMember command to take “domain and port index” as optional
parameters to display zoned device data, including the device PID and zone alias. The domain and
index can be either of the local switch or a remote switch.
Add a new option “domain” to the nsAliasShow command to display a remote device’s details for that
particular domain in the fabric.
Add a new command to take “WWNs/PIDs” as input parameters and display the zones they belong to.
This will display both the regular and the special zones.
The details of the device login activities are made available to the user via CLIs. A new command
nsDevLog is implemented to display the device login details.
FDMI (Fabric Device Management Interface) Enhancements
FOS v7.1 enhances FDMI support by implementing support for additional FDMI commands.
Support for the FDMI FC-GS-6 “get” commands (GRHL, GRPL, and GPAS), “registration/ de-registration”
commands (RHAT, RPAT and DPA), and all optional attributes per FC-GS-6 are supported for RHBA, RHAT, RPRT
and RPA are implemented in FOS v7.1. Also, fdmishow CLI has been enhanced to display additional
information about registered devices.
FCR Enhancements
FOS v7.1 implements the following FCR enhancements
PathInfo with TIZ (Traffic Isolation Zone) Configured over FCR
In FOS v7.1, the pathinfo command has been enhanced to display accurate path information in TIZ over FCR
configurations.
Credit Recovery Support on EX_Ports
FOS v7.1 implements buffer credit recovery mechanisms on EX_Ports
Credit recovery is enabled by default on EX_Ports of 16G platforms.
Credit recovery on 8G platform EX_Ports is supported only if long distance mode is enabled.
Fabric Name Support on FCR