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

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Administering NPIV

N-Port ID 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) and/or by WWN zoning. 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, then 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

For Bloom-based switches (SAN Switch 2/32 and SAN Director 2/128), NPIV is disabled for every port.
For Condor-based switches and port blades (SAN Switch 4/32, SAN Switch 4/32B, 4/64 SAN Switch,
and 4/256 SAN Director), NPIV is enabled for every port.
To enable or disable NPIV on a port-by-port basis, enter the portCfgNPIVPort command.
The following example shows NPIV being enabled on port 10 of a SAN Switch 4/32:
switch:admin> portCfgNPIVPort 10, 1

Configuring NPIV

To specify the number of virtual N_Port_IDs per port or per switch, use 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 port blade: For ports 0 through 15 on the
FC4-48 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
* number of ports). The default setting is (15 * number of ports).
Fabric OS 5.3.0 administrator guide 333