Users Guide

Manage identity pools—Stateless deployment

The I/O interfaces of a server, such as NICs or HBAs, have unique identity attributes that are assigned by the manufacturer of the

interfaces. These unique identity attributes are collectively known as the I/O identity of a server. The I/O identities uniquely identify a

server on a network and also determine how the server communicates with a network resource using a specific protocol. Using

OpenManage Enterprise, you can automatically generate and assign virtual identity attributes to the I/O interfaces of a server.

Servers deployed by using a device configuration template that contains virtual I/O identities are known as stateless. Stateless

deployments enable you to create a server environment that is dynamic and flexible. For example, deploying a server with virtual I/O

identities in a boot-from-SAN environment enables you to quickly do the following:

• Replace a failing or failed server by moving the I/O identity of the server to another spare server.

• Deploy additional servers to increase the computing capability during high workload.

The Identity Pools tab allows you to create, edit, delete, or export virtual I/O pools.

Create Identity Pool - Pool Information

Identity pools are used for template-based deployment on servers to virtualize the network identity for the following:

• Ethernet

• iSCSI

• Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)

• Fibre Channel (FC)

You can create a maximum of 5000 identity pools in each of these categories.

The server deployment process fetches the next available identity from the pool and uses while providing a server from the template

description. You can then migrate the profile from one server to another without losing access to the network or storage resources in your

environment.

You can edit the number of entries in the pool. However, you cannot reduce the number of entries less than those assigned or reserved.

You can also delete the entries that are not assigned or reserved.

Pool Name

Enter a name of the identity pool. The pool name can have a maximum length of 255 characters.

Description Enter a description for the identity pool. The maximum length of the description is 255 characters.

Actions

Displays the Ethernet tab.

Finish Saves the changes and displays the Identity Pools page.

Cancel Closes the Create Identity Pool wizard without saving the changes.

Identity pools

An identity pool is a collection of one or more virtual identity types that are required for network communication. An identity pool can

contain a combination of any of the following virtual identity types:

• Ethernet identities

The Identities which are defined by the Media Access Control (MAC) address. MAC addresses are required for Ethernet (LAN)

communications.

• iSCSI identities

The Identities which are defined by the iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN). IQN identities are required to support boot-from-SAN by using

the iSCSI protocol.

• Fibre Channel (FC) identities

The Identities which are defined by the World Wide Node Name (WWNN) and World Wide Port Name (WWPN). A WWNN identity is

assigned to a node (device) in an FC fabric and may be shared by some or all ports of a device. A WWPN identity is assigned to each

port in an FC fabric and is unique to each port. WWNN and WWPN identities are required to support boot-from-SAN and for data

access using FC and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocols.

• Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) identities

Manage device configuration templates