Support for converged fiber channel over ethernet (FCoE) traffic on software defined networks (SDNs)

A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions being readable and/or executable by a software defined network (SDN) controller to cause the SDN controller to:

• communicate with and program, by the SDN controller, one or more SDN-capable switches when the one or more SDN-capable switches are connected to the SDN controller;
• collect, by the SDN controller, information from one or more fiber channel forwarders (FCFs) via fiber channel initialization protocol (FIP) advertisement frames when the one or more FCFs are connected to the SDN controller, the information corresponding with each of the one or more FCFs;
• create and manage, by the SDN controller, a FCF database, the FCF database comprising the information that corresponds with each of the one or more FCFs;
• send, by the SDN controller, a flow command to the one or more SDN-capable switches that instructs each SDN-capable switch how to reach a FCF to which at least one end node is connected;
• and
• receive, by the SDN controller, an acknowledgment from the one or more SDN-capable switches upon completion of bandwidth programming for all SDN-capable switches in a flow path to the at least one end node which is connected to the FCF,
• wherein the one or more FCFs are configured to connect to the one or more SDN-capable switches, one or more storage area network (SAN) fabrics, and one or more local area network (LAN) fabrics.

A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions being readable and/or executable by a fiber channel forwarder (FCF) to cause the FCF to:

• act as a storage area network (SAN) gateway for any storage-based communications received from and/or sent to one or more SAN fabrics connected to the FCF;
• support a fiber channel over Ethernet (FCoE) session with at least one end node connected directly or indirectly to one or more software defined network (SDN)-capable switches and/or the FCF when the at least one end node is located in the one or more SAN fabrics;
• receive, from the SDN controller, one or more flows that detail a path that includes the FCF and one or more other nodes;
• and
• periodically send a unicast fiber channel initialization protocol (FIP) advertisement frame to a SDN controller connected to the FCF and the one or more SDN-capable switches.