A customer wants to refresh their FlexPod solution by moving from 10 Gbps to 40 Gbps networking. They use FCoE to boot from SAN. In this scenario…

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is supported on 40 Gbps adapters across the FlexPod technology stack. This includes Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Cards (VICs) for the servers, Cisco Nexus switches acting as FCoE Forwarders (FCFs), and NetApp Unified Target Adapters (UTAs) on the storage controllers. The customer's plan to refresh their FlexPod solution from 10 Gbps to 40 Gbps while retaining FCoE for SAN boot is a fully supported and validated configuration. This allows for a significant performance increase while maintaining the converged network infrastructure.

A. FCoE is supported for 32 Gbps adapters

This is incorrect because 32 Gbps is a native Fibre Channel (FC) speed, not an Ethernet speed. FCoE operates by encapsulating FC frames within Ethernet frames.

B. FCoE is supported for 25 Gbps adapters

While FCoE is supported on 25 Gbps adapters, this option does not directly address the customer's specific goal of moving to 40 Gbps networking.

D. FCoE is supported on only 10 Gbps unified adapters

This is incorrect. FCoE was initially deployed on 10 Gbps but has since been supported on higher-speed Ethernet interfaces, including 25 Gbps, 40 Gbps, and 100 Gbps.

1. Cisco Nexus 9000 Series NX-OS FCoE Configuration Guide, Release 10.2(x), "Information About FCoE" section.

This document states, "FCoE is supported on 10-Gigabit, 40-Gigabit, and 100-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces." This confirms support on the networking component of FlexPod.

2. Cisco UCS VIC 1340 Modular LOM for M4 Blade Servers Data Sheet, "Features and Benefits" section, Table 1.

The data sheet specifies that the VIC 1340 provides "40-Gbps unified fabric" capabilities and lists "Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)" under its supported protocols, confirming server-side adapter support.

3. NetApp Hardware Universe (hwu.netapp.com), "X1151A" adapter specification.

The specification for the X1151A adapter, a dual-port 40GbE QSFP+ adapter, explicitly lists "FCoE Target" as a supported protocol for various ONTAP versions. This confirms storage-side support for 40 Gbps FCoE.