Port negotiation between FCoE forwarders

A Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) forwarder (FCF), comprising:

• an Ethernet port and a Virtual Fiber Channel (VFC) port associated with the Ethernet port;
• a processor, to initiate a negotiation to an opposite party corresponding to the VFC port within a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) corresponding to each Virtual Storage Area Network (VSAN) supported by the VFC port;
• to determine an intersection of the VSAN and VLAN supported by the VFC port and the VSAN and VLAN supported by an opposite party of the VFC port, to perform an Exchange Link Parameter (ELP) negotiation within the intersection of the VSAN and the VLAN, and to record information of the VSAN supported by the VFC port and information of the VLAN corresponding to the VSAN on the VFC port;
• wherein the negotiation includes sending a FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP) Discovery Solicitation to the opposite party without first sending a FIP VLAN Request packet and receiving a FIP VLAN notification from the opposite party;
• wherein the FIP Discovery Solicitation indicates a VLAN corresponding to a VSAN supported by the VFC port of the FCF.

An apparatus for implementing port negotiation between Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) forwarders (FCFs), comprising:

• a processor to,
• send a FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP) Discovery Solicitation to an opposite party corresponding to a VFC port on a FCF within a VLAN corresponding to each VSAN supported by the VFC port on the FCF;
• after FIP Discovery Advertisements sent by the opposite party are received by the VFC port on the FCF, if it is determined that the VFC port on the FCF supports the VSAN notified by the FIP Discovery Advertisements and the VFC port on the FCF corresponding to the VSAN corresponds to the VLAN of the FIP Discovery Advertisements, and if the FIP Discovery Solicitation sent by the opposite party has already been received via the VFC port on the FCF, set a physical layer state of the VFC port on the FCF within the VSAN as Up;
• after the physical layer state of the VFC port on the FCF within the VSAN is set as Up, perform ELP negotiation with the opposite party corresponding to the VFC port on the FCF within the VSAN;
• after the ELP negotiation of the VFC port on the FCF within the VSAN succeeds, set a link layer state of the VFC port on the FCF within the VSAN as Up;
• and
• a storage to record information indicating that the VFC port on the FCF support the VSAN notified by the FIP Discovery Advertisements and information indicating that the VSAN of the VFC port on the FCE corresponds to the VLAN of the FIP Discovery Advertisements.