In storage area networking, Fabric OS (FOS) is the firmware for Brocade Communications Systems's Fibre Channel switches and Fibre Channel directors.[1]
The first generation of Fabric OS was developed on top of a VxWorks kernel and was mainly used in the Brocade Silkworm 2000 and first 3000 series on Intel i960.
The second generation of Fabric OS (4.0) was developed on a PowerPC platform, and uses MontaVista Linux, a Linux derivative with real-time performance enhancements. With the advent of MontaVista, switches and directors have the ability of hot firmware activation (without downtime for Fibre Channel fabric), and many useful diagnostic commands.
According to free software licenses terms, Brocade provides access to sources of distributed free software, on which Fabric OS and other Brocade's software products are based.
Additional products for Fabric OS are offered by Brocade for one-time fee. They are licensed for use in a single specific switch (license key is coupled with device's serial number). Those include:
Major Version |
Version | Date | Target Path | FICON Qualified | Posting Status | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
9.2.1x | 9.2.1a | March 1, 2024 | No | No | Posted | |
9.2.1 | December 20, 2023 | No | No | Posted | ||
9.2.0x | 9.2.0b | February 21, 2024 | Pending* | Yes | Posted | *Target Path designation pending (~July 2024) |
9.2.0a | June 21, 2023 | No | Yes | Posted | ||
9.2.0 | April 28, 2023 | No | No | Posted | ||
9.1.x | 9.1.1d1 | January 11, 2024 | Yes | Yes | Posted (LW) | |
9.1.1c | June 23, 2023 | Yes | Yes | Posted | ||
9.1.1b | January 20, 2023 | Yes | Yes | Posted | Minimum recommended for Gen 7 platforms | |
9.0.x | 9.0.1e1 | August 19, 2022 | Yes | Yes | Posted (LW) | |
9.0.1d | March 16, 2022 | Yes | Yes | Posted | Minimum recommended for Gen 6 platforms | |
8.2.x | 8.2.3e | April 17, 2024 | Yes | Yes | Posted | Available and supported for Gen 5 platforms only *FICON qualified for 7840 only |
8.2.3d | April 14, 2023 | Yes | Yes* | Posted | ||
7.4.x | 7.4.2j1 | July 14, 2022 | Yes | No | Posted | Supported on Gen 4 (8G) and 7800 platforms only |
Legend: Older version, still maintained Latest version |