143-085 · Question #104
You have a Brocade DCX 8510-8 with the default Virtual Fabrics feature enabled. You want to enable FC-FC routing on this chassis as the backbone. Which statement is true regarding this environment?
The correct answer is C. A base switch must be created with the routing ports assigned to it. See the full explanation below for the reasoning.
Question
You have a Brocade DCX 8510-8 with the default Virtual Fabrics feature enabled. You want to enable FC-FC routing on this chassis as the backbone. Which statement is true regarding this environment?
Options
- AEX_Ports must be configured on the default logical switch in the chassis to connect edge fabrics.
- BDevice sharing from the backbone fabric to the edge fabrics is supported.
- CA base switch must be created with the routing ports assigned to it.
- DThe backbone fabric can be expanded to other logical switches in interopmode.
How the community answered
(37 responses)- A8% (3)
- B3% (1)
- C73% (27)
- D16% (6)
Community Discussion
6
Samuel O.Apr 26, 2026C is the right call here. When Virtual Fabrics is enabled on a DCX 8510-8 and you want to run FC-FC routing, the chassis requires a dedicated base switch to handle the inter-fabric traffic, and your EX_Ports or VEX_Ports get assigned to that base switch, not the default logical switch.
Lena V.Apr 29, 2026Right, and worth adding that the base switch consumes one of your logical switch slots, so plan your partition count before you commit to that topology.
Ola B.Apr 8, 2026Spinning up a Virtual Fabrics lab on even a small Brocade chassis makes this click immediately, because the moment you try to configure EX_Ports on the default logical switch for FC-FC routing you hit errors that push you straight to the documentation on base switches. The base switch is a special logical switch that exists specifically to host the backbone fabric, and the routing ports have to be assigned to it before FC-FC routing will come up, which rules out A right away. B trips people up because device sharing actually flows in the direction of edge fabrics sharing devices into the backbone, not the other way around, so that statement is backwards. On my actual exam I almost second-guessed myself on C because D used the word "expanded" in a way that sounded official, but I remembered from lab that interopmode on the backbone breaks routing functionality rather than extending it, so I locked in C and moved on, and that was the right call.
Brenda K.Apr 20, 2026C is right, base switch holds the routing ports, that is the rule.
Samuel O.Apr 21, 2026That is mostly right, but worth adding that on a layer 3 switch you can also assign those routed ports directly without a switched virtual interface, which matters once you start mixing routed and access ports on the same box.
Lena V.Apr 13, 2026Took me a second but the base switch requirement clicked from lab work. C is it, routing ports belong to the base switch, not the default logical switch.