We currently have Brocade 200E fiber switches, connecting 2 EMC CLARiiONs to 4 VMware ESXi hosts. We are looking into new storage options using iSCSI with our existing ethernet network, including the possibility of gradually upgrading to 10 gigabit. I have been searching for any kind of 10GBASE-T switch, that is backwards-compatible to 1 gigabit, and includes the fiber channel ports necessary to connect to the Brocades/CLARiiONs as well.
I am not very experienced with storage administration and fiber channel, so I understand this question might have an obvious answer of "no", but it did seem like the Cisco Nexus 5010 with a module (N5K-M1008) might work.
I also thought about using a 10Gb switch (Dell Powerconnect 8024) that has the SFP ports for uplink to other switches. Are these SFP ports capable of connecting to the fiber ports on the Brocade (not necessarily just on this Dell switch, but any switch like this), or are they designed only to work as uplink to the same model?
Any insight into the specifics of fiber switching, and how fiber ports are classified would be helpful.
EDIT: I've held off commenting because I was learning a good deal from the answers, and wanted to be able to clarify as best I could. I don't necessarily need a simple switch, but more a single device that can do this (so a Cisco Nexus with the necessary modules could work). Also, it seems like for this to function, I would need my new storage to be able to support FCoE over the 10Gbps links, so that it could then reach my hosts over FC.
I understand that getting the zoning right on the FC switch might be overly complicated, but I want to see if my understanding of the technologies is now correct. So, assuming this could be accomplished, would a Nexus switch that has the 10Gbps ports, as well as FC ports from a module that connect to exisiting FC switches, be able to connect a new storage device (that can speak FCoE) to my existing hosts?
Certainly Cisco MDS 95xx FC switches can have 1Gbps and 10Gbps Fibre-Channel-over-Ethernet line cards added to them to convert regular FC traffic onto Data Centre Ethernet which can then be fed into any FCoE/DCE-capable switch, which in turn could have regular 1Gbps and 10Gbps Ethernet ports.
That doesn't answer your question however, I'm unaware of any one regular ethernet switch that's capable of also taking native-FC ports - they're wildly different protocols.
It's doable to do your storage switching and your network switching on the same device. However, it's a lot more expensive and complicated than just keeping it separate, especially for a smaller environment.
While the SFP and LC connections are identical when you're looking at an FC port versus when you're looking at an ethernet fiber port, they're completely different from a connectivity perspective. An FC port on a switch can only connect to another FC device, and an ethernet port can only connect to another ethernet device. The SFP ports on an ethernet switch like the Dell speak a completely different language from the SFP ports on the Brocade.
To be clear on the storage protocols: if you want to use iSCSI to take advantage of faster ethernet ports, your storage connectivity must be iSCSI the whole way - the devices need to be talking iSCSI and the storage needs to be talking iSCSI and they need IP connectivity between them. Likewise, if you want to use FC connectivity, your only choices are FC and FCoE, and every device participating needs to be compatible. You can't mix and match in any way except between compatible protocols (FC/FCoE).
But what you can do is to connect your CX arrays to both iSCSI and FC protocols (via both ethernet ports and FC ports), presenting LUNs over different protocols and fabrics as needed - talking iSCSI with the devices you're running on your new 10GbE switch, and FC to the devices plugged in to your Brocade. That's probably the most appropriate approach for you - but if you still want to run FC storage and network traffic on the same switch, there are options:
The Nexus switches which support FCoE have the ability to have native FC ports, providing a bridge into the Nexus FCoE fabric for classic-FC devices (as well as the desired copper and fiber ethernet ports for IP traffic). But, be very careful with your expectations about bridging them into an existing FC switch infrastructure, if you're looking to do so - I haven't looked into it in a while, but when I did it looked painful to get the zoning working how you'd want.
Brocade also has converged storage and network switches, as a product of their acquisition of Foundry; I'm less familiar with their product line, but it's likely they'll have something suitable as well.
You can do this with FCoE. I've seen vendors call this "Unified Network" or "Converged Network".
Fibre channel is a protocol, distinct from Ethernet or IP.
As such, a FC switch is not compatible with Ethernet technology.
iSCSI runs over IP but is likewise unrelated to and incompatible with FC.
If you meant "ethernet over fibre" then I have no idea, but the Fibre Channel protocol is wholly incompatible with ethernet or IP.