Cisco Nexus switches, FCoE SAN storage and ESXi hosts with CNAs at first seemed potentially difficult to configure. My thinking behind this was EMC themselves could not configure this, and left a project I was working on over a week behind schedule due to switch configuration issues. So we had to figure out how FCoE worked on the Nexus switches and get it working asap.

So incase I end up in this situation again and so I remember how to setup a Nexus switch with FCoE and just so I understand this better I am writing how to do this below.

There are a few important parts to making this work which I will summarise here...

• Enable FCoE feature
• Set the ports to trunk ports (hosts and SAN)
• Create a VSAN
• Create a VLAN for the FCoE traffic
• Map the VSAN to the VLAN
• Create and map the VFCs
• Configure zoning

Firstly start by putting the switch into config mode
Nexus# conf t
Nexus(config)#

In config mode, noted by the "Nexus(config)#" prompt type the following commands...

Enable FCoE on the switch
feature fcoe

Create the VLAN for FCoE storage traffic, in this case VLAN ID 123 and the VSAN 2.
vlan 123
  fcoe vsan 2
  exit

Ensure the ports that the hosts and FCoE SAN will be connected are configured as trunk ports. Give them a useful description.
interface Ethernet1/1
  description ESXi Server 1 FCoE
  switchport mode trunk

interface Ethernet1/2
  description ESXi Server 2 FCoE
  switchport mode trunk

interface Ethernet1/10
  description FCoE SAN Port 1
  switchport mode trunk

interface Ethernet1/11
  description FCoE SAN Port 2
  switchport mode trunk

Create the virtual fibre channel interfaces (VFC) and bind them to the physical switch interfaces of the hosts and SAN. Again give them a useful description.
interface vfc1
  bind interface Ethernet1/1
  switchport description ESXi Server 1 FCoE
  no shutdown

interface vfc2
  bind interface Ethernet1/2
  switchport description ESXi Server 2 FCoE
  no shutdown

interface vfc10
  bind interface Ethernet1/10
  switchport description FCoE SAN Port 1
  no shutdown

interface vfc11
  bind interface Ethernet1/11
  switchport description FCoE SAN Port 2
  no shutdown

Add the VFCs to the VSAN
vsan database
  vsan 2 interface vfc1
  vsan 2 interface vfc2
  vsan 2 interface vfc10
  vsan 2 interface vfc11

Create the zoning for the VSAN. You will need the WWNs for the host CNAs and the SAN.
zone name esxi1 vsan 2
    member pwwn 20:00:00:c0:dd:18:68:49
    member pwwn 21:00:00:c0:dd:18:68:49
    member pwwn 50:06:01:60:be:a0:15:13
    member pwwn 50:06:01:60:3e:a4:1e:4f
    member pwwn 50:06:01:61:3e:a4:1e:4f
    member pwwn 50:06:01:68:3e:a4:1e:4f
    member pwwn 50:06:01:69:3e:a4:1e:4f

zone name esxi2 vsan 2
    member pwwn 20:00:00:c0:dd:18:66:bd
    member pwwn 21:00:00:c0:dd:18:66:bd
    member pwwn 50:06:01:60:be:a0:15:12
    member pwwn 50:06:01:60:3e:a4:1e:4f
    member pwwn 50:06:01:61:3e:a4:1e:4f
    member pwwn 50:06:01:68:3e:a4:1e:4f
    member pwwn 50:06:01:69:3e:a4:1e:4f

Add the zone members to the zoneset
zoneset name SAN-ESXiCluster-Zoneset vsan 2
    member esxi1-1
    member esxi2-1

Activate the zoneset
zoneset activate name SAN-ESXiCluster-Zoneset vsan 2

Finally of course save your config
copy run start

Provided your connected correctly physically you should see the initiators of the hosts (scsi-fcp:init) and the SAN (scsi-fcp:target) in the FC name server database. Run a rescan on the hosts and SAN if required.

sh fcns database
VSAN 2:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
FCID        TYPE  PWWN                    (VENDOR)        FC4-TYPE:FEATURE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
0x940001    N     21:00:00:c0:dd:18:68:49 (Qlogic)        scsi-fcp:init
0x940002    N     50:06:01:61:3e:a4:15:13 (Clariion)      scsi-fcp:target
0x940003    N     21:00:00:c0:dd:18:66:bd (Qlogic)        scsi-fcp:init
0x940004    N     50:06:01:68:3e:a4:15:12 (Clariion)      scsi-fcp:target
Total number of entries = 4