66 Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide
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Inter-switch links
4
Inter-switch links
An inter-switch link (ISL) is a link between two switches, E_Port-to-E_Port. The ports of the two
switches automatically come online as E_Ports once the login process finishes successfully. For
more information on the login process, refer to Chapter 1, “Understanding Fibre Channel Services”.
FIGURE 6 New switch added to existing fabric
You can expand your fabric by connecting new switches to existing switches. Figure 6 shows a new
switch being added into an existing fabric. The thick red line is the newly formed ISL.
When connecting two switches together, Brocade recommends the best practice that the following
parameters are differentiated:
• Domain ID
• Switch name
• Chassis name
You must also verify the following fabric parameters are identical on each switch for a fabric to
merge:
• R_A_TOV (Resource Allocation TimeOut Value)
• E_D_TOV (Error Detect TimeOut Value)
• Data Field Size
• Sequence Level Switching
• Disable Device Probing
• Suppress Class F Traffic
• Per-frame Route Priority
There are non-fabric parameters that must match as well, such as zoning. Some fabric services,
such as management server, must match. If the fabric service is enabled in the fabric, then the
switch you are introducing into the fabric must also have it enabled. If you experience a segmented
fabric, refer to the Fabric OS Troubleshooting and Diagnostics Guide to fix the problem.
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