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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

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 11 of 41
In FOS v7.1 the fcrfabricshow command has been enhanced to display the names of the edge fabrics
attached to an FCR.
iflShow Command
In FOS v7.1 a new command “iflshow” is implemented to display the connection details between an edge
switch and an FCR. This command is intended be executed on an edge switch, also provides details of VE-VEX
connections.
Note: Platforms running FOS v7.1 do not support EX_ Port configuration in Interopmode 2 or Interopmode 3.
Access Gateway Enhancements
FOS v7.1 implements the following Access Gateway (AG) enhancements:
D_Port Support on AG
The supported configurations are:
D_Port between 16G AG and 16G switch
D_Port between a pair of 16G AGs (for AG cascading)
FEC Support in AG
FOS v7.1 implements support for the Forward Error Correction (FEC) feature on 16G FC platforms configured in
Access Gateway mode. FEC is supported on N_Ports and F_Ports of an AG in VC_RDY, EXT_VC_RDY and RDY
modes.
FEC support on links between 16G switch and 16G AG
FEC support on links between 16G AG and another 16G AG
FEC support on links between 16G AG and Brocade 16G HBA (requires HBA driver 3.2 or
later)
Credit Recovery Support in AG
FOS v7.1 adds support for buffer credit loss recovery on Access Gateway. This is aimed at automatically
recovering buffer credits and ensuring optimum performance. Credit recovery is supported in Access Gateway
mode on both 8G and 16G FC platforms.
This feature is supported in the following scenarios:
On the link between an Access Gateway and a Switch
On the link between an Access Gateway and another Access Gateway
On the link between an Access Gateway and a Brocade HBA
Credit recovery feature is supported both on F_Ports connected to a Brocade 8G or 16G HBA
(requires Brocade HBA driver v3.2 or later and HBA ports must be operating at the maximum
speed of 8G for 8G HBA, 16G for 16G HBA) and on N_Port links connected to a Brocade 16G
switch.
Authentication Support in Access Gateway (AG) Mode
FOS v7.1 adds support for authentication between an AG and a Switch, and between an AG and an HBA.
For Switch to AG authentication, FCAP or DH-CHAP protocol is used.
For HBA to AG authentication, only DH-CHAP protocol is used.
Various RAS Enhancements
FOS v7.1 implements the following RAS enhancements:
SFP Monitoring Enhancements

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 12 of 41
Update sfpShow data when a new SFP is plugged-in
FOS v7.1 has been enhanced to update the SFP serial data information when a new SFP is
inserted even in a disabled port, and to show the "valid" data (Temperature, Current, Voltage
and Tx/Rx power, etc.) once the port is enabled and SFP data has been polled for that port.
Time stamp for SFP polling
In FOS v7.1 a new field has been added in the command “sfpshow port# [-f]” to display the
last poll time stamp for a port.
RASlog Management Enhancement
Ability to Suppress a RASlog Message
A new RASlog command “rasadmin” has been added in FOS v7.1 that can be used to
disable/enable a specific RASlog message or a group of RASlog messages. This command
provides control to the end users to suppress any frequently occurring or unwanted RASlog
message and re-enable the logging when required.
Change RASlog Message Default Severity
FOS v7.1 adds support to change a RASlog message’s default severity level via the
“rasadmin” command. For example, users may choose to lower the severity of a message
from warning to informational if they believe it is the appropriate severity level for that
message in their environment.
View RASlog Message Description on the Switch
Beginning with Fabric OS v7.1, users can view the message documentation such as the
message text, message type, class (for audit messages), message severity, cause, and action
on the switch console by using the rasMan message_ID command.
Errdump CLI Enhancement
New options have been added to the existing errDump command in FOS v7.1 to filter RASlog
messages according to slot , severity, etc.
CLI History Enhancements
Starting with FOS v7.1, CLI history will be persistent across reboot and firmwaredownload. A
maximum of 1680 records can be saved.
The CLI history feature has been enhanced to save the information such as timestamp,
username, IP address of the telnet session, command options, and arguments whenever a
command is executed on the switch.
Starting with FOS v7.1, each command executed on the switch from a non root account will be
saved as an Audit log. A new RASlog message,“RAS-3005”, has been added to log the CLI name,
including arguments. This RASlog is an audit only message and will not be saved in the RASlog’s
storage.
Bottleneck Detection Enhancements
Usability enhancements have been made to the bottleneckmon command in FOS v7.1 such that, when
changing bottleneck detection configuration, unspecified parameters do not revert back to their default
values, if they currently have non-default values. Please see the bottleneckmon command description for
additional details.
Edge Hold Time (EHT) Related Enhancements
FOS v7.1 adds support for the user defined EHT configuration only in the default switch in a Virtual Fabrics
environment. In addition, pre-defined EHT values can be configured for individual Logical Switches.

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 13 of 41
Frame Viewer (Class 3 Discard Log) Enhancements
In FOS v7.1 Frame Viewer has been enhanced to display class 3 discard log messages associated with the
backend ports (internal ports) of a chassis.
Backend Link Monitoring Enhancements
FOS v7.1 introduces three different options/policies to fault the core blade/edge blade when the link reset
threshold of a Back End (BE) port is exceeded. Please see the bottleneckmon command description for
additional details.
LR_IN and LR_OUT in fabriclog
FOS v7.1 has been enhanced to indicate whether a Link Reset (LR) was initiated by the local or remote
switch.
LR_IN will be set if the remote device initiates the link reset and LR_OUT will be set if it was initiated by the
local switch. The LR_IN or LR_OUT indication will be displayed in the fabriclog output along with existing
fabric logs.
CLI to Read Real-time Error Status Block of an F_Port
FOS v7.1 implements a new command, “fcpRlsProbe”, with option –-start to read the error status block of
an F_Port. This command sends an RLS (Read Link Status) ELS to the device and caches information such
as the number of loss-of-signal, loss-of-sync, CRC errors, and protocol errors encountered on the specified
device port. The cached data is displayed through the fcpRlsProbe --show command.
Timestamp for portStatsClear, statsClear and slotStatsClear Operations
FOS v7.1 has been enhanced to display the time when port statistics were last cleared.
Updating enc_out, bad_os and pcs_err Counters after Port Online
FOS v7.1 has been enhanced to update enc_out, bad_os, and pcs_err counters only after a port has come
online. This ensures that users are not misled by the values these counters may have had before a port is
fully online.
Encryption Platform Enhancements
FOS v7.1 implements the following enhancements for the BES/FS8-18 platforms:
Thin Provisioning Support
A new feature that enables BES/FS8-18 to support Thin Provisioning of the disk LUNs. Thin
Provision support is only available on storage arrays that have been tested by Brocade.
Encrypted Data Throughput Performance Monitoring
A new feature in BES/FS8-18 to monitor the throughput of the redirected I/O flow to the
Encryption engine. A new FOS command has been added to display the performance data.
Increased Path Commit Limit for CTC Configuration
Increasing the number of transactions to 512 for disk LUN operation for virtualized
environments. This enhancement is applicable only through Brocade Network Advisor.
Expanded Device Decommissioning Support
Expanding support for the Device Decommissioning of disk LUNs for all the supported
keyvaults types, i.e. RSA DPM, NetApp LKM/SafeNet KeySecure in SSKM mode, HP ESKM,
Thales EKA, IBM TKLM and KMIP (using SafeNet KeySecure).
KMIP-compliant Key Management Client
A new feature in BES/FS8-18 platform that enables the FOS native KMIP client support for
Safenet KeySecure key vault server when running in KMIP mode.
RD Zone Creation Failure without L2 Zones
Prevent creation of redirection zones if regular zones for the corresponding host/target are
not present in the effective configuration for cryptoConfig commit operations.

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 14 of 41
Miscellaneous Enhancements
Credit Recovery Support on F_Ports to Brocade HBA
FOS v7.1 implements credit recovery mechanisms on F_Ports connecting to Brocade 8G or 16G HBAs.
Credit Recovery alert to the User Level RASlog
FOS v7.1 adds a user level RASlog Cxx_1023 to alert about buffer credit recovery performed on 16G FC
platforms. This RASlog is generated whenever a single credit loss was detected and automatically recovered.
This RASlog can be viewed by using the errDump command.
Virtual Fabrics: Set Logical Switch Context Using Switch Name
In pre-FOS v7.1, in the Virtual Fabrics environment, when switching context between Logical Switches within a
physical switch, the FID number is required to set the context of a logical switch. In FOS v7.1 this setcontext CLI
has been enhanced to allow “switch name” to set the Logical Switch context.
Fabretrystats CLI
With FOS v7.1 a new command fabRetryStats has been implemented that not only includes functionality
equivalent to fabRetryShow (via –show option), but also implements additional functionality to clear any retry
counters of fabric SW_ILS commands.
Display of WWNN on Segmented ISLs
FOS v7.1 has been enhanced to display the WWN details of the neighbor switch in switchShow and islShow
command outputs when an ISL gets segmented. Please note that if the very first ELP (Exchange Link
Parameters) fails between neighboring ports then the WWNN may not be displayed at both ends of the
segmented link.
TI (Traffic Isolation) Zone Violation Handling for Trunk Ports
If a failover disabled TI zone has trunk members, but if not all members of that trunk group are in the same TI
zone, then there is a possibility of routing issues if the members in the TI zone fail. FOS v7.1 tries to detect
such mis-configurations upfront and warn users about this condition via the ZONE_1061 RASlog message.
Add Support for switchCfgPersistentDisable –set option
In pre-FOS v7.1, on executing the switchCfgPersistentDisable command, the switch is disabled immediately.
However, this may not be the desired behavior all the time. Hence in FOS v7.1 a new option has been added to
just set the switch to disable state and not actually disable the switch immediately. If the switch is
subsequently disabled or reboots, it will be held in the disabled state.
portAutoDisable Enhancements
FOS v7.1 adds the following options to portAutoDisable command:
1) “portcfgautodisable --suspend”
When this command is issued all the existing configurations will not be disturbed but no action will be
performed on the port for the configured options (i.e. option = LOSG, OLS, NOS, LIP,LOSN) .
2) “portcfgautodisable --resume”
For the configured option the action will be performed. Here the action means for the existing configured
option (i.e. option = LOSG, OLS, NOS, LIP, LOSN) the port gets auto disabled.
portnumbers in Hexadecimal Format
The commands portDisable, portEnable, portShow, portPerfShow, portCfgSpeed, portStatsClear, and
portStatsShow can accept port numbers in hexadecimal format.
“–x” option indicates that a port or a range of ports identified by port index numbers is in hex format.
CS_CTL based QoS Related Enhancements
FOS v7.1 provides an additional option to the end users to map CS_CTL values to QoS traffic priorities. Starting
with FOS v7.1, users have the choice to map CS_CTL values of 1, 2 and 3 to QoS priorities Low, Medium and
High respectively.

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 15 of 41
SuperPing Enhancements
In FOS v7.1, SuperPing for FCIP supports the following features:
Traverse all possible FCIP links based on FCIP routing.
Display all possible VE and GE link in path.

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 16 of 41
Optionally Licensed Software
Fabric OS v7.1 includes all basic switch and fabric support software, as well as optionally licensed software
that is enabled via license keys.
Optionally licensed features supported in FOS v7.1 include:
Brocade Ports on Demand—Allows customers to instantly scale the fabric by provisioning additional ports via
license key upgrade. (Applies to select models of switches).
Brocade Fabric or E_Port or Full Fabric—This license enables a switch to connect to a multi-switch fabric via
E_Ports, forming ISL connections.
Note: This license is only required on select embedded switch models and the Brocade 300, and does not
apply to other fixed-port switches or chassis-based platforms.
Brocade Extended Fabrics—Provides greater than 10km of switched fabric connectivity at full bandwidth over
long distances (depending on the platform this can be up to 3000km)
Brocade ISL Trunking—Provides the ability to aggregate multiple physical links into one logical link for
enhanced network performance and fault tolerance. Also includes Access Gateway ISL Trunking on those
products that support Access Gateway deployment.
Brocade Advanced Performance Monitoring—Enables performance monitoring of networked storage resources.
This license includes the Top Talkers feature.
Brocade Fabric Watch —Monitors mission-critical switch operations and provides notification if established
limits or thresholds are exceeded. Fabric Watch includes Port Fencing capabilities.
FICON Management Server—Also known as “CUP” (Control Unit Port), enables host-control of switches in
Mainframe environments.
Enhanced Group Management —This license enables full management of devices in a data center fabric with
deeper element management functionality and greater management task aggregation throughout the
environment. This license is used in conjunction with Brocade Network Advisor application software and is
applicable to all FC platforms supported by FOS v7.0 or later.
Adaptive Networking with QoS—Adaptive Networking provides a rich framework of capability allowing a user to
ensure high priority connections obtain the bandwidth necessary for optimum performance, even in congested
environments. The QoS SID/DID Prioritization and Ingress Rate Limiting features are included in this license,
and are fully available on all 8Gb and 16Gb platforms.
Note: Brocade 6520 does not require the Adaptive Networking with QoS license to enable the capabilities
associated with this license. These capabilities are included by default on the Brocade 6520.
Server Application Optimization (SAO) —When deployed with Brocade Server Adapters, this license optimizes
overall application performance for physical servers and virtual machines by extending virtual channels to the
server infrastructure. Application specific traffic flows can be configured, prioritized, and optimized throughout
the entire data center infrastructure. This license is not supported on the Brocade 8000.
Note: Brocade 6520 does not require the SAO license to enable the capabilities associated with this license.
These capabilities are included by default on the Brocade 6520.
Integrated Routing—This license allows any port in a DCX 8510-8, DCX 8510-4, Brocade 6510, Brocade 6520,
DCX-4S, DCX, 5300, 5100, 7800, or Brocade Encryption Switch to be configured as an EX_Port or VEX_Port (on
some platforms) supporting Fibre Channel Routing. This eliminates the need to add a dedicated router to a
fabric for FCR purposes.
Encryption Performance Upgrade —This license provides additional encryption processing power. For the
Brocade Encryption Switch or a DCX/DCX-4S/DCX 8510-8/DCX 8510-4, the Encryption Performance License
can be installed to enable full encryption processing power on the BES or on all FS8-18 blades installed in a
DCX/DCX-4S/DCX 8510-8/DCX 8510-4 chassis.

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 17 of 41
DataFort Compatibility —This license is required on the Brocade Encryption Switch or DCX/DCX-4S/DCX 8510-
8/DCX 8510-4 with FS8-18 blade(s) to read and decrypt NetApp DataFort-encrypted disk and tape LUNs.
DataFort Compatibility License is also required on the Brocade Encryption Switch or DCX/DCX-4S/DCX 8510-
8/DCX 8510-4 Backbone with FS8-18 Encryption Blade(s) installed to write and encrypt the disk and tape
LUNs in NetApp DataFort Mode (Metadata and Encryption Algorithm) so that DataFort can read and decrypt
these LUNs. DataFort Mode tape encryption and compression is supported beginning with the FOS v6.2.0
release on DCX platforms. Availability of the DataFort Compatibility license is limited; contact your vendor for
details.
Brocade 8000 FC Ports on Demand —This license enables all eight FC ports on the Brocade 8000.
Advanced Extension –This license enables two advanced extension features: FCIP Trunking and Adaptive Rate
Limiting. The FCIP Trunking feature allows multiple IP source and destination address pairs (defined as FCIP
Circuits) via multiple 1GbE or 10GbE interfaces to provide a high bandwidth FCIP tunnel and failover resiliency.
In addition, each FCIP circuit supports four QoS classes (Class-F, High, Medium and Low Priority), each as a
TCP connection. The Adaptive Rate Limiting feature provides a minimum bandwidth guarantee for each tunnel
with full utilization of the available network bandwidth without impacting throughput performance under high
traffic load. This license is available on the 7800 and the DCX/DCX-4S/DCX 8510-8/DCX 8510-4 for the FX8-
24 on an individual slot basis.
10GbE FCIP/10G Fibre Channel –This license enables the two 10GbE ports on the FX8-24 or the 10G FC
capability on FC16-xx blade ports. On the Brocade 6510 and Brocade 6520, this license enables 10G FC
ports. This license is available on the DCX/DCX-4S/DCX 8510-8/DCX 8510-4 on an individual slot basis.
FX8-24: With this license assigned to a slot with an FX8-24 blade, two additional operating modes (in
addition to 10 1GbE ports mode) can be selected;10 1GbE ports and 1 10GbE port, or 2
10GbE ports
FC16-xx:Enables 10G FC capability on an FC16-xx blade in a slot that has this license
Brocade 6510, Brocade 6520: Enables 10G FC capability on the switch
Advanced FICON Acceleration –This licensed feature uses specialized data management techniques and
automated intelligence to accelerate FICON tape read and write and IBM Global Mirror data replication
operations over distance, while maintaining the integrity of command and acknowledgement sequences. This
license is available on the 7800 and the DCX/DCX-4S/DCX 8510-8/DCX 8510-4 for the FX8-24 on an
individual slot basis.
7800 Upgrade –This license allows a Brocade 7800 to enable 16 FC ports (instead of the base four ports) and
six GbE ports (instead of the base two ports). This license is also required to enable additional FCIP tunnels
and also for advanced capabilities like tape read/write pipelining.
ICL 16-link, or Inter Chassis Links -- This license provides dedicated high-bandwidth links between two Brocade
DCX chassis, without consuming valuable front-end 8Gb ports. Each chassis must have the 16-link ICL license
installed in order to enable the full 16-link ICL connections. Available on the DCX only.
ICL 8-Link –This license activates all eight links on ICL ports on a DCX-4S chassis or half of the ICL bandwidth
for each ICL port on the DCX platform by enabling only eight links out of the sixteen links available. This allows
users to purchase half the bandwidth of DCX ICL ports initially and upgrade with an additional 8-link license to
utilize the full ICL bandwidth at a later time. This license is also useful for environments that wish to create ICL
connections between a DCX and a DCX-4S, the latter of which cannot support more than 8 links on an ICL port.
Available on the DCX-4S and DCX platforms only.
ICL POD License –This license activates ICL ports on core blades of DCX 8510 platforms. An ICL 1st POD
license only enables half of the ICL ports on CR16-8 core blades of DCX 8510-8 or all of the ICL ports on
CR16-4 core blades on DCX 8510-4. An ICL 2nd POD license enables all ICL ports on CR16-8 core blades on a
DCX 8510-8 platform. (The ICL 2nd POD license does not apply to the DCX 8510-4.)
Enterprise ICL (EICL) License –The EICL license is required on a Brocade DCX 8510 chassis when that chassis
is participating in a group of five or more Brocade DCX 8510 chassis connected via ICLs.

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 18 of 41
Note that this license requirement does not depend upon the total number of DCX 8510 chassis that exist in a
fabric, but only on how many chassis are interconnected via ICLs. This license is only recognized/displayed
when operating with FOS v7.0.1 but enforced with FOS v7.1.0 or later.
Note: The EICL license supports a maximum of nine DCX 8510 chassis connected in a full mesh topology or up
to ten DCX 8510 chassis connected in a core-edge topology.
Temporary License Support
The following licenses are available in FOS v7.1 as Universal Temporary or regular temporary licenses:
Fabric (E_Port) license
Extended Fabric license
Trunking license
High Performance Extension license
Advanced Performance Monitoring license
Adaptive Networking license
Fabric Watch license
Integrated Routing license
Server Application Optimization license
Advanced Extension license
Advanced FICON Acceleration license
10GbE FCIP/10G Fibre Channel license
FICON Management Server (CUP) license
Enterprise ICL license
Note: Temporary Licenses for features available on a per slot basis enable the feature for any and all slots in
the chassis.
Temporary and Universal Temporary licenses have durations and expiration dates established in the licenses
themselves. FOS will accept up to two temporary licenses and a single Universal license on a unit. Universal
Temporary license keys can only be installed once on a particular switch, but can be applied to as many
switches as desired. Temporary use duration (the length of time the feature will be enabled on a switch) is
provided with the license key. All Universal Temporary license keys have an expiration date upon which the
license can no longer be installed on any unit.
Other Licensing Changes
The capabilities associated with the Adaptive Networking and SAO licenses are included by default on
the Brocade 6520. Hence these licenses are not applicable to the Brocade 6520 platform.

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 19 of 41
Supported Switches
Fabric OS v7.1 supports the Brocade 300, 5410/5424/5430/5450/5460/5470/5480/NC-
5480, 5100, 5300, VA-40FC, Brocade Encryption Switch (BES), DCX/DCX-4S, 8000, 7800,
6505, 6510, 6520, DCX 8510-8 and DCX 8510-4.
Access Gateway mode is also supported by Fabric OS v7.1, and is supported on the following switches: the
Brocade 300, 5100, VA-40FC, 8000, 5450, 5430, 5460, 5470, 5480, NC-5480, M5424, 6510, 6505.
Standards Compliance
This software conforms to the Fibre Channel Standards in a manner consistent with accepted
engineering practices and procedures. In certain cases, Brocade might add proprietary supplemental
functions to those specified in the standards. For a list of FC standards conformance, visit the
following Brocade Web site: http://www.brocade.com/sanstandards
The Brocade 8000 and FCOE10-24 blade conform to the following Ethernet standards:
IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol
IEEE 802.1s Multiple Spanning Tree
IEEE 802.1w Rapid reconfiguration of Spanning Tree Protocol
IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation with LACP
IEEE 802.3ae 10G Ethernet
IEEE 802.1Q VLAN Tagging
IEEE 802.1p Class of Service Prioritization and Tagging
IEEE 802.1v VLAN Classification by Protocol and Port
IEEE 802.1AB Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP)
IEEE 802.3x Flow Control (Pause Frames)
The following draft versions of the Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Standards are also supported on the Brocade 8000 and FCOE10-24 blade:
IEEE 802.1Qbb Priority-based Flow Control
IEEE 802.1Qaz Enhanced Transmission Selection
IEEE 802.1 DCB Capability Exchange Protocol (Proposed under the DCB Task Group of IEEE
802.1 Working Group)
FC-BB-5 FCoE (Rev 2.0)
Technical Support
Contact your switch supplier for hardware, firmware, and software support, including product repairs and part
ordering. To expedite your call, have the following information immediately available:
1. General Information
Technical Support contract number, if applicable
Switch model
Switch operating system version
Error numbers and messages received
supportSave command output and associated files
oFor dual CP platforms running FOS v6.2 and above, the supportsave command gathers
information from both CPs and any AP blades installed in the chassis
Detailed description of the problem, including the switch or fabric behavior immediately following
the problem, and specific questions

Fabric OS v7.1.0a Release Notes v1.0 Page 20 of 41
Description of any troubleshooting steps already performed and the results
Serial console and Telnet session logs
Syslog message logs
2. Switch Serial Number
The switch serial number is provided on the serial number label, examples of which are shown here:
FT00X0054E9
The serial number label is located as follows:
Brocade Encryption Switch, VA-40FC, 300, 5100, 5300, 6510, 6505, 6520 —On the switch ID
pull-out tab located on the bottom of the port side of the switch
Brocade 7800 —On the pull-out tab on the front left side of the chassis underneath the serial
console and Ethernet connection and on the bottom of the switch in a well on the left side
underneath (looking from front)
Brocade 8000 —On the switch ID pullout tab located inside the chassis on the port side on the
left and also on the bottom of the chassis
Brocade DCX, DCX 8510-8 —Bottom right of the port side
Brocade DCX-4S, DCX 8510-4 —Back, upper left under the power supply
3. World Wide Name (WWN)
When the Virtual Fabric feature is enabled on a switch, each logical switch has a unique
switch WWN. Use the wwn command to display the switch WWN.
If you cannot use the wwn command because the switch is inoperable, you can get the
primary WWN from the same place as the serial number, except for the Brocade DCX/DCX-4S
and DCX 8510-8/DCX 8510-4. For the Brocade DCX/DCX-4S and DCX 8510-8/DCX 8510-4
access the numbers on the WWN cards by removing the Brocade logo plate at the top of the
non-port side. The WWN is printed on the LED side of both cards.
1. License Identifier (License ID)
There is only one License Identifier associated with a physical switch or director/backbone
chassis. This License Identifier is required as part of the ordering process for new FOS
licenses.
Use the licenseIdShow command to display the License Identifier.