Back to: Brocade FC (Fibre Channel) Switches
Brocade switches come with a variety of licenses that unlock specific features and functionalities. These licenses allow users to scale performance, enable advanced protocols, and enhance monitoring capabilities. Let’s break down the most common ones:
🌟 Core Port and Advanced Port Licenses
- Port On Demand (POD): Enables additional ports on the switch. Brocade switches often ship with a base set of ports enabled, and POD licenses are required to activate the rest.
- Dynamic POD (DPOD): A flexible version of POD that allows ports to be assigned dynamically without pre-assigning specific ports.
🚀 Fabric and Network Features
- Enterprise Fabric License: Provides support for advanced fabric features like Fabric Watch, ISL trunking, and extended fabric functionality.
- ISL Trunking License: Aggregates multiple ISLs (Inter-Switch Links) into a single logical link, increasing bandwidth and load balancing.
- Extended Fabric License: Allows for long-distance ISLs by supporting buffer credits for high-latency environments.
⚡ Performance and Virtualization
- Adaptive Networking License: Offers QoS (Quality of Service), ingress rate limiting, and traffic prioritization to manage network traffic.
- Fabric Vision License: Activates advanced monitoring tools like Flow Vision, MAPS (Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite), and other diagnostic utilities.
- Integrated Routing License (IRL): Enables FCR (Fibre Channel Routing) to connect separate fabrics while maintaining isolation.
📈 NVMe and Modern Protocols
- NVMe over Fibre Channel License: Required to support NVMe traffic, allowing high-performance, low-latency storage access.
🛡️ Security and Encryption
- Encryption License: Enables traffic encryption between switches for data security.
🌟 1. Default Licenses (Base Licenses)
These licenses are included with the switch by default — no extra purchase is needed. They typically cover basic functionality for initial setup and core operations.
- Base Fabric License: Enables basic Fibre Channel switching capabilities — allowing the switch to participate in a fabric, manage zoning, and handle traffic.
- Dynamic Port On Demand (DPOD): Many switches come with a set number of active ports (usually 24 or 48), with the flexibility to assign these dynamically without fixed port allocations.
- Web Tools: Provides access to the Web GUI for switch management.
- Advanced Zoning: Allows the use of zoning features to segment fabric access and enhance security.
🚀 2. On-Demand Licenses (Feature Expansion Licenses)
These are optional licenses you can purchase to unlock additional features or scale the switch’s capabilities.
- Port On Demand (POD): Activates additional ports beyond the default port count. For example, activating 24 more ports on a 48-port switch.
- ISL Trunking: Combines multiple ISLs (Inter-Switch Links) into a single logical link for higher bandwidth and load balancing.
- Extended Fabric: Supports long-distance ISLs by increasing buffer credits to handle high-latency links.
- Fabric Vision: Unlocks advanced monitoring tools like MAPS (Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite), Flow Vision, and ClearLink diagnostics.
- Adaptive Networking: Enables Quality of Service (QoS), ingress rate limiting, and traffic prioritization.
- Integrated Routing (IR): Allows Fibre Channel Routing (FCR) — connecting separate fabrics while maintaining isolation.
- NVMe over Fibre Channel: Supports NVMe storage traffic for high-performance, low-latency environments.
- Encryption: Activates encryption services for secure data transmission between switches.
📊 How to check your current licenses?
You can run the following command via CLI:
licenseshow
This will list all active licenses — both default and on-demand — so you can easily identify what’s enabled and what might need upgrading.