User`s guide

FC0054609-00 B Glossary-3
User’s Guide—Fibre Channel Adapter
2600 Series
Because a path is a combination of an
adapter and a target port, it is distinct from
another path if it is accessed through a
different adapter or it is accessing a
different target port. Consequently, when
switching from one path to another, the
driver might be selecting a different
adapter (initiator), a different target port, or
both.
This is important to the driver when
selecting the proper method of failover
notification. It can make a difference to the
target device, which might have to take
different actions when receiving retries of
the request from another initiator or on a
different port.
PCI Express (PCIe)
A third-generation I/O standard that allows
enhanced Ethernet network performance
beyond that of the older peripheral compo-
nent interconnect (PCI) and PCI extended
(PCI-x) desktop and server slots.
personality
When used in the context of an adapter,
the term personality refers to the entire
adapter. It includes all the I/O ports and the
functions on that adapter. For example, a
QLogic adapter can have dual personality,
converting from Fibre Channel to
Converged Network Adapter or vice versa.
Therefore, all the I/O functions and all the
I/O physical ports on the adapter changes
from Fibre Channel Adapter to Converged
Network Adapter.
port
Access points in a device where a link
attaches. The most common port types
are:
 N_Port—a Fibre Channel port that
supports point-to-point topology.
 NL_Port—a Fibre Channel port that
supports loop topology.
 F_Port—a port in a fabric where an
N_Port can attach.
 FL_Port—a port in a fabric where an
NL_Port can attach.
port instance
The number of the port in the system.
Each adapter may have one or multiple
ports, identified with regard to the adapter
as port 0, port 1 and so forth. To avoid
confusion when dealing with a system
containing numerous ports, each port is
assigned a port instance number when the
system boots up. So port 0 on an adapter
might have a port instance number of 8, for
example, if it is the eighth port discovered
by the system.
quality of service (QoS)
Refers to the methods used to prevent
bottlenecks and ensure business conti-
nuity when transmitting data over virtual
ports by setting priorities and allocating
bandwidth.
redundant array of independent disks
(RAID)
Fault-tolerant disks that look like either
single or multiple volumes to the server.
small computer systems interface (SCSI)
The original SCSI specification was a
hardware bus specification and a
packet-oriented protocol specification for
communicating on that bus. SCSI over
Fibre Channel uses the packet-oriented
protocol to communicate with storage
devices on the Fibre Channel.
storage area network (SAN)
Multiple storage units (disk drives) and
servers connected by networking topology.