11–FCoE Configuration
Configuring Linux FCoE Offload
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This section provides the following information about FCoE offload in Linux:
Differences Between qedf and bnx2fc
Verifying FCoE Devices in Linux
Differences Between qedf and bnx2fc
Significant differences exist between qedf—the driver for the Cavium FastLinQ
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10/25GbE Controller (FCoE)—and the previous QLogic FCoE offload
driver, bnx2fc. Differences include:
qedf directly binds to a PCI function exposed by the CNA.
qedf does not need the open-fcoe user space tools (fipvlan, fcoemon,
fcoeadm) to initiate discovery.
qedf issues FIP vLAN requests directly and does not need the fipvlan utility.
qedf does not need an FCoE interface created by fipvlan for fcoemon.
qedf does not sit on top of the net_device.
qedf is not dependent on network drivers (such as bnx2x and cnic).
qedf will automatically initiate FCoE discovery on link up (because it is not
dependent on fipvlan or fcoemon for FCoE interface creation).
Configuring qedf.ko
No explicit configuration is required for qedf.ko. The driver automatically binds to
the exposed FCoE functions of the CNA and begins discovery. This functionality is
similar to the functionality and operation of the Cavium QLogic FC driver, qla2xx,
as opposed to the older bnx2fc driver.
NOTE
FCoE interfaces no longer sit on top of the network interface. The qedf driver
automatically creates FCoE interfaces that are separate from the network
interface. Thus, FCoE interfaces do not show up in the FCoE interface
dialog box in the installer. Instead, the disks show up automatically as SCSI
disks, similar to the way Fibre Channel drivers work.
NOTE
For more information on FastLinQ driver installation, see
.
