Overview; San Switching Overview - Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Configuration Manual

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C H A P T E R

Overview

The Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS software can configure and manage features such as VSANs, SAN
device virtualization, dynamic VSANs, zones, distributed device alias services, Fibre Channel routing services
and protocols, FLOGI, name server, FDMI, RSCN database, SCSI targets, FICON, and other advanced
features described in this guide.
• SAN Switching Overview, page 3

SAN Switching Overview

The SAN switching features documented in this guide are described below.
Fibre Channel Interfaces
Fibre Channel ports are optional on the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch. When you use expansion modules
up to 8 Fibre Channel ports are available on the Cisco Nexus 5010 switch and up to 16 Fibre Channel ports
are available on the Cisco Nexus 5020 switch.
Each Fibre Channel port can be used as a downlink (connected to a server) or as an uplink (to the data center
SAN fabric).
Domain Parameters
The Fibre Channel domain (fcdomain) feature performs principal switch selection, domain ID distribution,
FC ID allocation, and fabric reconfiguration functions as described in the FC-SW-2 standards. The domains
are configured on a per-VSAN basis. If you do not configure a domain ID, the local switch uses a random
ID.
N Port Virtualization
Cisco NX-OS software supports industry-standard N port identifier virtualization (NPIV), which allows
multiple N port fabric logins concurrently on a single physical Fibre Channel link. HBAs that support NPIV
can help improve SAN security by enabling zoning and port security to be configured independently for each
virtual machine (OS partition) on a host. In addition to being useful for server connections, NPIV is beneficial
for connectivity between core and edge SAN switches.
N port virtualizer (NPV) is a complementary feature that reduces the number of Fibre Channel domain IDs
in core-edge SANs. Cisco MDS 9000 family fabric switches operating in the NPV mode do not join a fabric;
they only pass traffic between core switch links and end devices, which eliminates the domain IDs for these
switches. NPIV is used by edge switches in the NPV mode to log in to multiple end devices that share a link
Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS SAN Switching Configuration Guide
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