Fabric OS

Fabric OS
Developer	Broadcom
Working state	Current
Source model	Closed source
Latest release	9.2.2 / October 15, 2024;3 months ago
Platforms	Broadcom Fibre Channel switches/directors
Default; user interface	Command-line interface
Official website	FOS - Fabric Operating System

Last updated February 06, 2025

In storage area networking, Fabric OS (FOS) is the firmware for Brocade Communications Systems's Fibre Channel switches and Fibre Channel directors.^[1]

First generation

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.

Second generation

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 licensed products

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:

Integrated Routing
Adaptive Networking: Quality of service, Ingress Rate Limiting
Brocade Advanced Zoning (Free with rel 6.1.x)
ISL trunking
Ports on Demand
Extended Fabrics (more than 10 km of switched fabric connectivity, up to 3000 km)
Advanced Performance Monitoring (APM)
Fabric Watch
Secure Fabric OS (obsolete)
VMWare VSPEX integration ^[2]

Versions

Fabric OS current "*Posted*" versions^[3]
Major Version (Date)	Version	Date	Target Path	FICON Qualified	Posting Status	Notes
Current stable version:9.2.2x (October 2024)	9.2.2	October 15, 2024	No	No	Posted

Old version, yet still maintained: 9.2.1x (December 2023)	9.2.1b	January 7, 2025	No	No	Posted
	9.2.1a1	October 31, 2024	No	Yes	Posted
	9.2.1	December 20, 2023	No	No	Posted

Old version, yet still maintained: 9.2.0x (April 2023)	9.2.0c3	January 22, 2025	Yes	Yes	Posted (LW)
Old version, yet still maintained: 9.2.0x (April 2023)	9.2.0b1	June 27, 2024	Yes	Yes	Posted

Old version, yet still maintained: 9.1.x (December 2021)	9.1.1d2	July 11, 2024	Yes	Yes	Posted (LW)
Old version, yet still maintained: 9.1.x (December 2021)	9.1.1c3	November 9, 2023	Yes	Yes	Posted

Old version, yet still maintained: 8.2.x (November 2017)	8.2.3e2	December 17, 2024	Yes	Yes	Posted	Available and supported for Gen 5 platforms only
Legend: Old version, not maintained Old version, still maintained Latest version Latest preview version Future release LW = Lifetime Warranty platforms

Fabric OS 9.x
- 9.2.2:
- 9.2.1:
- 9.2.0:
- 9.1: Root Access Removal, NTP Server authentication
- 9.0: Traffic optimizer, Fabric congestion notification, New Web Tools (graphical UI switched from Java to Web)
Fabric OS 8.x
- 8.2: NVMe capable + REST API
- 8.1:
- 8.0: Contains many new software features and enhancements as well as issue resolutions
Fabric OS 7.x
- 7.4: Switch to Linux 3.10 kernel
- 7.3:
- 7.2:
- 7.1:
- 7.0:
Fabric OS 6.x
- 6.4:
- 6.3: Fillwords 2 and 3 introduced in Fabric OS 6.3.1a
- 6.2: Virtual Fabrics-capable
- 6.1: M-EOS compatibility enhancements
- 6.0: LDAP support
Fabric OS 5.x
- 5.3: Switch to Linux 2.6 kernel
- 5.2:
- 5.1: Access Gateway mode
- 5.0:
Fabric OS 4.x
- 4.4:
- 4.3:
- 4.2:
- 4.1: SSH support, Multiple user access
- 4.0: migrated from VxWorks to Linux
Fabric OS 3.x
Fabric OS 2.x

References

↑ "Broadcom Fibre Channel Networking".
↑ "Brocade SAN Fabric Technologies Provide Solid Foundation for New EMC VSPEX with VMAX3 100K Infrastructure Solution - MarketWatch". Archived from the original on 2015-10-01. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
↑ FOS Release Support and Posting Status Matrices (PDF) - Version 2.21; Brocade-SW-Support-RM123; January 31, 2025

External links

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[1] "Broadcom Fibre Channel Networking".

[2] "Brocade SAN Fabric Technologies Provide Solid Foundation for New EMC VSPEX with VMAX3 100K Infrastructure Solution - MarketWatch". Archived from the original on 2015-10-01. Retrieved 2015-08-12.

[3] FOS Release Support and Posting Status Matrices (PDF) - Version 2.21; Brocade-SW-Support-RM123; January 31, 2025

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