# Overview

Intel® Ethernet FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) is designed for the 82599 and X540-based 10 Gigabit family of PCI-Express server adapters. This guide covers hardware and software installation, setup procedures, known issues and troubleshooting tips for installing and booting the system using these adapters.

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is defined as the encapsulation of standard Fibre Channel (FC) protocol frames as data within standard Ethernet frames. This link-level encapsulation, teamed with an FCoE-aware Ethernet-to-FC gateway, acts to extend an FC fabric to include Ethernet-based host connectivity. The FCoE specification focuses on encapsulation of FC frames specific to storage class traffic, as defined by the Fibre Channel FC-4 FCP specification. FC is a market-leading technology used to create Storage Area Networks (SANs).

Data Center Bridging (DCB) is a collection of standards-based extensions to classical Ethernet. It provides a lossless data center transport layer that enables the convergence of LANs and SANs onto a single unified fabric. In addition to supporting Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and iSCSI over DCB, it enhances the operation of other business-critical traffic.

## Installation Overview

For information on system requirements see System Requirements.

1. Install FCoE-capable adapters in the system. For a list of supported adapters, see Supported Adapters.
2. After following the installation and configuration procedures, if you are having problems, refer to Known Issues.

## FCoE Infrastructure - Installation and Configuration

The following is a typical FCoE setup flow:

1. Typical FCoE-Enabled Fabric Switch Configuration
2. If you want to Boot from an FCoE LUN
   - Intel® Ethernet FCoE Boot Configuration
   - Configure Intel® Ethernet FCoE Boot Options from Intel® Windows* Device Manager
3. Install Operating System
   - Linux Installation and Configuration
   - Microsoft* Windows* Server 2008 Installation and Configuration
4. Configure Intel® Ethernet FCoE/DCBx
   - Configure DCBx
   - Configure FCoE

`Last modified on 8/24/11 10:28a Revision`