EMC Connectrix EC-1200 Planning Manual page 61

When a higher-level operating system function (such as a Windows
NT disk signature) or a volume serial number is used to maintain the
association between the operating system device name and the
device itself, controller-target-to-WWPN binding is not essential.
However, these higher-level addressing functions are not found in
every environment, so persistent binding is necessary to ensure a
single, simple, safe, supportable, consistent practice. This is done
automatically with the Emulex/Windows NT driver, but requires
editing a configuration file in the JNI/Solaris environment. Refer to
the JNI technotes and the EMC fabric driver release notes.
The Emulex driver has the ability to write to the Windows NT registry. When
the driver discovers a new device, it writes the device's WWN into the
registry and associates it to the BTL value assigned by the OS.
CAUTION
!
Failure to follow fabric installation instructions can result in data
loss.
CAUTION
!
Do not rely on such functions as the Windows NT signature or a
Volume ID when the application or hardware depends on raw
device names (ctd, or controller-target-device, in Solaris; btl, or
bus-target-lun, in Windows NT 4). For example, the following use
raw device names:
Oracle parallel server
Sybase
Tape devices — If the customer has future plans to use the HBA
to access both disk and tape, the selected HBA should
implement a persistent binding strategy. In the present
Windows NT space, Emulex's port driver is the recommended
solution.
Fibre Channel Switching Concepts
Persistent Binding
2
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