14Administering Npiv; Npiv Overview; Enabling And Disabling Npiv; Configuring Npiv - HP A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base Administrator's Manual

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Administering NPIV
This chapter describes the concepts and procedures for administering N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV).

NPIV Overview

N_Port Virtualization (NPIV) enables a single Fibre Channel protocol port to appear as multiple, distinct
ports, providing separate port identification within the fabric for each operating system image behind the
port (as if each operating system image had its own unique physical port). NPIV assigns a different virtual
port ID to each Fibre Channel protocol device. NPIV is designed to enable you to allocate virtual
addresses without impacting your existing hardware implementation. The virtual port has the same
properties as an N_Port, and is therefore capable of registering with all services of the fabric.
Each NPIV device has a unique device PID, Port WWN, and Node WWN, and should act the same as all
other physical devices in the fabric; in other words, multiple virtual devices emulated by NPIV appear no
different than regular devices connected to a non-NPIV port. The same zoning rules apply to NPIV devices
as non-NPIV devices. Zones can be defined by domain,port notation, by WWN zoning, or both. To
perform zoning to the granularity of the virtual N_Port IDs, you must use WWN-based zoning.
If you are using domain,port zoning for an NPIV port, and all the virtual PIDs associated with the port are
included in the zone, a port login (PLOGI) to a non-existent virtual PID is not blocked by the switch; rather,
it is delivered to the device attached to the NPIV port. In cases where the device is not capable of handling
such unexpected PLOGIs, you should use WWN-based zoning.

Enabling and disabling NPIV

The SAN Switch 4/32, SAN Switch 4/32B, 4/64 SAN Switch, 8/8 SAN Switch, 8/24 SAN Switch,
8/40 SAN Switch, 8/80 SAN Switch, 4/256 Director, and DC SAN Backbone Director have NPIV
enabled for every port.
NOTE: Director blade FC10-6 does not support NPIV.
1. Connect to the switch and log in using an account assigned to the admin role.
2. To enable or disable NPIV on a port-by-port basis, issue the portCfgNPIVPort command.
The following example shows NPIV being enabled on port 10 of an 8/40 SAN Switch:
switch:admin> portCfgNPIVPort 10, 1

Configuring NPIV

To specify the number of virtual N_Port_IDs per port or per switch, issue the configure command with
either of the following parameters:
•
switch.login.perPortMax
Use this parameter to set the number of virtual N_Port_IDs per port to a value between 0 and 255. The
default setting is 126.
For the 4/256 SAN Director with an FC4-48, or FC8-48, or the DC SAN Backbone Director (short name,
DC Director) with an FC8-48 port blade: For ports 0 through 15 on the FC4-48 and FC8-48 port blade,
the maximum number of virtual N_Port_IDs per port is 255; for ports 16 through 47, the maximum
number is 127.
•
switch.login.perSwitchMax
Use this parameter to set the number of virtual N_Port_IDs per switch to a value between 0 and 126
multiplied by the number of ports you specify when setting this parameter. The default setting is 16
multiplied by the number of ports specified. If no ports are specified then all ports on the switch are
used.
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