Fabric OS is not a true operating system, but more a series of software modules that interact with the Brocade Silkworm FibreChannel Switches and Directors. The first generation of Fabric OS was developed on top of a VxWorks kernel and was mainly used in the Brocade 2000 and first 3000 series. Even today, a lot of production environments are still running the older generation Silkworm models. The second generation of Fabric OS was developed on a PPC platform, and uses MontaVistaLinux, a Linux derivative with real-time performance enhancements. With the advent of the MontaVista solution, Silkworm Switches and Directors have the capability of hot firmware activation (without downtime for FC fabric), as well as a plethora of useful diagnostic commands. Additional licensed products for Fabric OS include:
- Secure Fabric OS (SFOS)
- Brocade advanced zoning
- ISL trunking
- Advanced Performance Monitoring (APM)
- Fabric Watch
Brocade Silkworm product family: 3016, 3250, 3850, 3900, 4100, 12000 and 24000. Fabric OS is used by Hewlett Packard in their B-series switches.[1]
Versions
- Fabric OS 5.5.0
- Fabric OS 4.4.0[b]
- Fabric OS 4.1
- SSH support
- Multiple user access
- Fabric OS 3.2.0
- Fabric OS 3.1
- Fabric OS 2.6.2[a]
- Fabric OS 2.6.1
