Willing vs. Non-willing DCB Mode

Notices and Disclaimers
Revision History
Introduction
- QoS/Flow Control Limitations on the 800 Series
Background
Link-Level Flow Control
- LFC Setup Instructions
- Symmetric vs. Asymmetric LFC
Priority Flow Control - Fundamentals
Congestion Management – Tuning Parameters
Priority Flow Control - Planning and Guidelines
- Steps
- Example Configurations
Priority Flow Control - Verification
Troubleshooting

DCB (Data Center Bridging) standards like PFC and ETS must be set to either willing or non-willing mode, which determines whether the port is willing to accept configuration settings from its link partner.

DCB (Data Center Bridging) negotiation supports two modes: willing and non-willing, which determine whether a port will accept configuration settings from its link partner. This setting applies at the interface level, not to individual DCB components such as ETS (Enhanced Transmission Selection) or PFC (Priority Flow Control).

DCB negotiation supports two modes: willing and non-willing, which determine whether a port will accept configuration settings from its link partner. This setting applies at the interface level, not a individual DCB components such as ETS (Enhanced Transmission Selection) or PFC (Priority Flow Control).

Mode	When to Use
Willing	If you want to configure DCB on their switch and let adapters accept settings from the switch ports. This is the preferred, most common setup.
Non-willing	For back-to-back configurations. For troubleshooting, testing, and manually tweaking the configuration. If preferred, configure DCB on all hosts and set the neighboring switch ports to willing (somewhat uncommon and might not be supported by all switches).

Firmware vs. Software DCB

Network Host and Switch Setup Firmware vs. Software DCB