Brocade Access Gateway Administrator's Guide (Supporting Fabric OS v7.3.0) - Manual (Page 21)

Limitations and considerations
• Authentication policy is not supported on cascaded AG switch configurations.
• Authentication is not supported between an AG switch running Fabric OS v7.1.0 or later and a
fabric running Fabric OS earlier than v7.1.0. If the AG switch is connected to fabric switch running
Fabric OS earlier than v7.1.0, the AG switch N_Ports will disable if authentication is enabled on
both switches. Devices mapped to N_Ports connected to fabrics operating with Fabric OS before
v7.1.0 will also disable.
• If authentication is disabled on the Fabric Switch, the AG switch N_Port will come online without
authentication policy.
• Device and switch policies must be disabled on the AG before converting the switch to Native
mode.
• Device and switch policies must be disabled on the switch in Native mode before converting it to
AG mode.
• Authentication policy is disabled by default on all ports in AG mode.
• High availability (HA) reboots are supported.
AG mode without all POD licenses
Prior to Fabric OS 7.3.0, the Brocade non-embedded switches (Brocade 300, 5100, 6505, and 6510)
require all POD licenses to run in Access Gateway mode. However, starting with Fabric OS release
7.3.0, all POD licenses are not required to run these switches in AG mode.
The following points need to be considered while running the switches in AG mode without all POD
licenses:
• By default, configured N_Ports will come up as disabled because a POD license is not installed for
those ports.
• All F_Ports mapped to the default N-port will come up as disabled with the following reason N-Port
Offline for F-Port
• You must manually configure N_Ports in the switch using the portcfgnport command, and move
the cable connections accordingly.
• You can update the N_Port-to-F_Port mapping using the mapdel and mapadd commands.
• You must install all POD licenses to downgrade from Fabric OS 7.3.0 to any previous release.
Password distribution support
Prior to Fabric OS 7.3.0, user account and password database can only be managed locally on the
switches in AG mode. You had to either manually populate the password database in the AG mode or
change the switch to native mode and then back to AG mode to populate the password database.
Starting with Fabric OS 7.3.0, running the distribute command on any of the switches in native mode,
will distribute the password database to all AGs and switches connected to the same fabric. You can
distribute using the AG name or use *.* to distribute to all switches and AGs.
Consider the following points regarding password distribution:
• The fddCfg command in the AG can only be used to configure to either accept or reject the
password database coming from any of the switches in the same fabric.
• To accept the password database from any switch, the AG must be loaded with Fabric OS 7.3.0,
and at least one of the switches in native mode within the same fabric must be loaded with Fabric
OS 7.3.0.
• Other databases supported by fddCfg are not supported on AGs.
Limitations and considerations
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