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N_Port ID Virtualisation (NPIV) is an industry-standard Fibre Channel (FC) protocol that provides a means to assign multiple FC addresses on the same physical link.
NPIV provides an FC facility for assigning multiple N_Port IDs to a single N_Port, thereby allowing multiple distinguishable entities on the same physical port. In other words, it makes a single FC port appear as multiple virtual ports, each having its own N_Port ID and virtual WWN. The NPIV protocol requires an N_Port (typically a host bus adapter [HBA] or any device that acts as an NPIV gateway) and a fabric (generally an FC switch) so that the N_Port can request and acquire multiple addresses from the fabric. This protocol has been well defined in T11 standards (FC-DA and FC-LS) and both the N_Port and FC switch should comply with this protocol for the NPIV-based solution to work.
NPIV implementations require two participating ports:
- An N_Port, which communicates with an FC fabric for requesting port addresses and subsequently registering with the fabric
- An F_Port, which assigns the addresses and provides fabric services
Ensure that you check product documentation to validate NPIV support. Any HBA or any special device that is capable of N_Port functionality and NPIV protocol can connect to an FC switch with NPIV-enabled F_Port support and can perform multiple logins on a single physical link to which it is attached.
NPIV enables several possible solutions such as HBA and server virtualisation and gateway connectivity for multiple servers without adding an additional FC Domain to an existing FC fabric.
HP offers an NPIV-based FC interconnect option for blade servers with HP BladeSystem c-Class, the latest HP BladeSystem architecture. The three major products that offer this solution with HP BladeSystem c-Class are the HP 4Gb Virtual Connect Fibre Channel (VC-FC) Module, the Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch running in Access Gateway Mode, and the Cisco MDS 9124e Fabric Switch in N_Port Virtualiser (NPV) Mode.
To find out more, read the complete white paper. |
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