topic Re: SAN over MPLS - MLXe in Data Center (MLX & CER/CES)

SAN over MPLS - MLXe

tlibessart — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 17:05:47 GMT

Hello,

I have a MLX network on which i do MPLS tunnel to delivry LAN to LAN.

I would like to know if it’s possible to delivery SAN to SAN over MPLS ?

Thanks by advance !

Re: SAN over MPLS - MLXe

Michael_Morey — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 20:17:45 GMT

Tlibessart,

I am not sure if I understand your question, however I will attempt to answer your question with some general information.

The MLX itself does not support direct SAN connectivity; FC, FCOE etc. This is an ethernet device that provides Layer 2 switching and Layer 3 routing. As you mentioned, the MLX supports MPLS and both VPLS (point to multipoint) and VLL (point to point) Layer 2 extension. Traffic needs to be tagged/untagged for the appropriate VLAN in order to be placed onto the MPLS network.

If your SAN traffic is not encapsulated correctly as Ethernet Traffic, I would not expect it to flow over the MPLS network.

Thanks,

Michael Morey
Principal Technical Support Engineer / Extreme Networks

Re: SAN over MPLS - MLXe

tlibessart — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 20:52:15 GMT

Thanks Michael for your answer !

Indeed, that i wanted to know was if it is possible to delivry FC instead of Ethernet with VLL. So you correctly answered at my request ! 🙂

So, if i want to make SAN to SAN (with FC), i need to encapsulate my FC over Ethernet.

Is this solution work correctly on MPLS network ? If the mpls tunnel have a different path and so

latency increases. Can we have repercussions on SAN ?

Re: SAN over MPLS - MLXe

Michael_Morey — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 21:16:50 GMT

Tlibessart,

As long as the traffic is Ethernet, it should be treated the same as the rest of your Ethernet traffic, this includes priority and queueing. Ethernet is a lossy protocol so there are no guarantees that traffic will arrive at the destination in the same order they were transmitted, you could look into MPLS QOS to better prioritize this traffic over other traffic on the MPLS if loss/latency is an issue for your traffic.

Thanks,

Michael Morey
Principal Technical Support Engineer / Extreme Networks

Re: SAN over MPLS - MLXe

tlibessart — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 21:46:01 GMT

Ok thanks Michael !

So, is it possible to impement this solution on brocade MLX ? To define FCoE on this MPLS tunnel to guarantee on the same order ? (Maybe with ethertype 8914 ?)

Re: SAN over MPLS - MLXe

Michael_Morey — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 22:00:42 GMT

Tlibessart,

There is no option to classify or define traffic as FCOE on an MPLS circuit for the MLX, nor is FC/FCOE supported on the MLX.

The point I am trying to make is that your FCOE traffic MAY work over an MPLS tunnel as long as it is properly encapsulated as Ethernet when it arrives at the MLX, this is not something we would typically see or support, and it would be treated like all other Ethernet traffic.

Thanks,

Michael Morey
Principal Technical Support Engineer / Extreme Networks