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Fibre Channel over Ethernet overview

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is a model for connecting hosts to storage systems. As with Fibre Channel (FC), FCoE maintains existing FC management and controls. However, the hardware transport is a lossless 10-Gb Ethernet network.

Setting up an FCoE connection on the host or storage requires one or more supported converged network adapters (CNAs) connected to a supported FCoE switch. The CNA is a consolidation point and effectively serves as both an FC HBA and an Ethernet adapter

The CNA is presented to the host and target as both an FCoE Initiator HBA and a 10-Gb Ethernet adapter. The FCoE Initiator HBA portion of the CNA handles the FCoE traffic when traffic is sent and received as FC frames mapped into Ethernet packets (FC over Ethernet). The Ethernet adapter portion of the CNA handles the standard Ethernet IP traffic, such as iSCSI, CIFS, NFS, and HTTP, for the host. Both the FCoE and standard Ethernet portions of the CNA communicate over the same Ethernet port, which connects to the FCoE switch.

The FCoE target adapter is also sometimes called a "unified target adapter" or UTA. Like the CNA, the UTA supports both FCoE and regular Ethernet traffic.

You should configure jumbo frames (MTU = 9000) for the Ethernet adapter portion of the CNA. You cannot change the MTU for the FCoE portion of the adapter.

Note: Unified target adapters (UTAs) are 10-Gb converged network adapters (CNAs) that you install in your storage systems.

In general, you configure and use FCoE connections just like traditional FC connections. You can use UTAs for non-FCoE IP traffic such as NFS, CIFS, or iSCSI.

Note: For detailed information about how to set up and configure your host to run FCoE, see your host documentation.