Port Types And Switch Modes; Port Types; Switch Modes - HP flexfabric 5900cp Solutions Configuration Manual

2 Port types and switch modes

To support LAN and SAN environments, the HP FlexFabric 5900CP switch utilizes multiple port
types and switch modes.

Port types

The HP FlexFabric 5900CP switch supports multiple port types.
types supported.
Table 1 Supported HP FlexFabric 5900CP port types
Ethernet Port Types
Access/Tagged-trunk 10GbE/40GbE ports used for Ethernet data
FCoE Port Types
VF_Port: Virtual F_Port (FCoE switch to FCoE target/initiator)
VE_Port: Virtual E_Port (FCoE switch to FCoE switch) (future use-case support)
VNP_Port: FCoE NPV switch port (FCoE switch to FCoE switch as a proxy)
FC Port Types
F_Port: Fabric port (switch to FC target/initiator)
E_Port: Expansion port (switch to switch ISL) (future use-case support)
NP_Port: NPV switch port (FC switch to FC switch as a proxy)

Switch modes

The HP FlexFabric 5900CP switch supports four operating modes. Standard mode is the default
mode. FCF, NPV, and Transit modes are advanced modes.
1. Standard (Non-FCoE) Mode—When a switch operates in this mode, it is a standard/DCB
Ethernet switch and does not provide any FCoE/FC capabilities.
2. FCF (Fibre Channel Forwarder)—When a switch operates in this mode, it is called as an FCF
switch. In this mode, the following HP FlexFabric 5900CP converged port connections are
available:
Fibre Channel
HP FlexFabric 5900CP F_Port to an N_Port on a node.
HP FlexFabric 5900CP (NPIV) F_Port to an NP_Port on an NPV switch.
HP FlexFabric 5900CP E_Port to an E_Port on another HP FlexFabric 5900CP FCF switch.
FCoE
HP FlexFabric 5900CP VF_Port to a VN_Port on a node.
HP FlexFabric 5900CP (NPIV) VF_Port to a VNP_Port on an NPV switch.
HP FlexFabric 5900CP VE_Port to the VE_Port on another HP FlexFabric 5900CP FCF
switch.
If the primary mode of the HP FlexFabric 5900CP switch is set to FCF, the converged ports
can be set to F_Port or E_Port, but cannot be set to NP_Port. For FCoE, the ports can be set
to VF_Port or VE_Port, but cannot be set to VNP_Port.
NOTE:
6 Port types and switch modes
At present, no E_Port connectivity use-cases are supported.
Table 1 (page 6) lists the port