3.5.1 Basic Fiber Channel Configuration

Information

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) encapsulation allows a physical Ethernet cable to carry standard Fibre Channel traffic within Ethernet frames. In Cisco Nexus devices, an FCoE-capable physical Ethernet interface can carry traffic for one virtual Fibre Channel (vFC) interface. If FCoE functionality is not required, this functionality should be disabled. Note also that this is a licensed feature, so is not available without a purchased license.

Rationale:

Solution

Enable the FCoE feature globally on the switch:

switch(config)# feature fcoe
FC license checked out successfully

fc_plugin extracted successfully
FC plugin loaded successfully
FCoE manager enabled successfully
FC enabled on all modules successfully
Warning: Ensure class-fcoe is included in qos policy-maps of all types

Enable FCoE on a specific port (not required on all models):

switch(config)# interface ethernet x/y
switch(config-if)# fcoe mode on

set the priority flow mode on a specific port:

switch(config-if)# priority-flow-control mode auto

FCoE also requires the DCBX (Data Center Bridging Exchange) protocol, which is used to negotiate capabilities between the FCOE endpoints. DCBX is an extension of LLDP, and LLDP is enabled globally and on all interfaces by default.
If LLDP is disabled on any particular interface, it can be re-enabled as:

switch(config-if)# int Ethernet x/y
switch(config-if)# lldp transmit
switch(config-if)# lldp receive

Default Value:

The FCoE feature is not enabled by default. LLDP is enabled globally and on all interfaces by default, so if FCoE is enabled then DCBX is enabled by default

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/6524