---
name: "fipvlan"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "fcoe-utils"
version: "1.0.34-6"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/fipvlan"
---

# fipvlan(8)

Fibre Channel over Ethernet VLAN Discovery

## NAME

fipvlan - Fibre Channel over Ethernet VLAN Discovery

## SYNOPSIS

**fipvlan** \[-c\|--create\] \[-d\|--debug\] \[-s\|--start\] \[-m\|--mode fabric\|vn2vn\] \[-u\|--link-up\] *interfaces*

**fipvlan** -a\|--auto \[-c\|--create\] \[-d\|--debug\] \[-s\|--start\] \[-m\|--mode fabric\|vn2vn\] \[-l\|--link-retry *count*\] \[-u\|--link-up\]

**fipvlan** -h\|--help

**fipvlan** -v\|--version

## DESCRIPTION

The **fipvlan** command performs Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Initialization Protocol (FIP) VLAN Discovery over Ethernet interfaces. **fipvlan** can be used as a diagnostic tool to determine which VLANs have FCoE services available on a network, prior to configuring VLAN interfaces and the *Open-FCoE* initiator. **fipvlan** can also be used to create VLAN interfaces as they are discovered, and to start the *Open-FCoE* initiator. The **--create** and **--start** options are primarily intended to be used as part of an *Open-FCoE* boot solution. FCoE instances started in this way cannot be destroyed or reset by fcoeadm.

**fipvlan** takes a list of network interface names to run the VLAN discovery protocol over, or the **--auto** option to use all available Ethernet interfaces.

**fipvlan** will enable any interface which is found disabled. If no response is received on that interface it will be shutdown again when **fipvlan** terminates.

## OPTIONS

- **-a**, **--auto**

  Use all Ethernet interfaces currently available

- **-c**, **--create**

  Create network interfaces for discovered FCoE VLANs. If a VLAN device already exists for a discovered VLAN, a new VLAN device will not be created.

- **-d**, **--debug**

  Enable debugging output

- **-s**, **--start**

  Start the *Open-FCoE* initiator on discovered FCoE VLANs

- **-m**, **--mode**

  fabric\|vn2vn Specify whether VLAN discovery is performed in the default fabric mode, or in VN2VN mode.

- **-f**, **--suffix** *suffix*

  Append the specified string *suffix* to VLAN interface names.

- **-l**, **--link-retry** *count*

  Retry check for link up to *count* times. The link state is checked every 1000 ms. The default number of retries is 20.

- **-u**, **--link-up**

  Leave link up if a FIP response has been received.

- **-h**, **--help**

  Display a help message with basic usage instructions

- **-v**, **--version**

  Display the **fipvlan** version string

## VLAN NAMING CONVENTIONS

If a new VLAN device is created, it will have the name *dev*.*vlan*; where *dev* is the name of the Ethernet parent device and *vlan* is the discovered VLAN ID number. An optional suffix may be appended to this with the the **-f** command line option.

## EXAMPLES

Display all discoverable VLANs with FCoE services

```
fipvlan --auto
```

Discover FCoE VLANs on interface eth2, create VLAN devices and start the *Open-FCoE* initiator

```
fipvlan --create --start eth2
```

In this example if FCoE services were available on VLAN 101 of network interface eth2, then a VLAN interface eth2.101 would be created and used as the parent device for the initiator.

## SEE ALSO

[**fcoeadm**(8)](/fcoeadm/8.md) [**fcoemon**(8)](/fcoemon/8.md)

## SUPPORT

**fipvlan** is part of the *fcoe-utils* package, maintained through the *Open-FCoE* project. Resources for both developers and users can be found at the *Open-FCoE* website http://open-fcoe.org/