Understanding Fibre Channel Services
In this chapter
Fibre Channel services overview
Fibre Channel services define service functions that reside at well-know addresses, as illustrated in
Figure
provided to either nodes or management applications in the fabric.
FIGURE 1
Fabric Login - The Fabric Login server assigns a fabric address to a fabric node, which allows it to
communicate with services on the switch or other nodes in the fabric. The fabric address is a 24-bit
address (0x000000) containing three 3-byte nodes. Reading from left to right, the first node
(0x000000) represents the domain ID, the second node (0x000000) the port area number of the
port where the node is attached, and the third node (0x000000) the arbitrated loop physical
address (AL_PA), if applicable.
Directory server - The directory server or name server registers fabric and public nodes and
conducts queries to discover other devices in the fabric.
Fabric controller - The fabric controller provides State Change Notifications (SCNs) to registered
nodes when a change in the fabric topology occurs.
Time server - The time server sends the time to the member switches in the fabric from either the
principal switch or, if configured, the primary fabric configuration server (FCS) switch.
Refer to
Fabric OS Administrator's Guide
53-1002745-02
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Management server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
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Platform services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
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Topology discovery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
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Device login . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
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1. A well-known address is a reserved three-byte address for each service. Services are
Well-known addresses
Chapter 7, "Configuring Security Policies,"
for additional information on FCS policies.
Chapter
1
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