Shared Fc Functions - Hitachi Compute Blade 2000 User Manual

Shared FC Functions

 Overview of the Shared FC Function
The following two Fibre Channel (FC) functions are supported by LPAR manager.
Dedicated FC

In this mode, an FC adapter, by the unit of a PCI card, is allocated to an LPAR and
used by the LPAR. Multiple LPARs cannot use a single FC adapter at the same
time. This is for an environment where data transmission performance is important.
Shared FC

In this mode, a single FC adapter can be allocated to and shared by multiple LPARs,
and they can use the adapter simultaneously. In the shared FC, there are two ways
in which the FC adapter can be shared.
FC Port assigned respectively to an LPAR

This method involves assigning one LPAR exclusively to a port on a FC
adapter that has two or more ports.
Thus, by using the FC Port Partition function with a FC adapter with two ports,
two LPARs can share a FC adapter.
FC Port assigned to multiple LPARs

One port of the FC adapter can be assigned to multiple LPARs.
The following figure shows an image of FC Port assigned respectively to an
LPAR.
LPAR1
OS (Linux)
Shared physical
FC adapter
FCSW
(supporting NPIV)
LPAR2
Shared FC driver
vfcWWN
Port0
LUa for LPAR1
1316
OS (Windows)
Shared FC driver
vfcWWN
LPAR manager
Port1
Port1
Storage
LUb for LPAR2