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Create virtual I/O pools
31 Server Hardware Provisioning and OS Deployment by using Dell EMC OpenManage Essentials
14 Create virtual I/O pools
Virtual I/O pools simplify identity management in the OME. This section describes how to create the Virtual
I/O pool from a prefix definition or an import file. Also, about how to increase the size of Virtual I/O pool and
lock or unlock the Virtual I/O pool.
14.1 Virtual I/O pool definition
The Virtual I/O pool is a definition of identity types that describe identities and determines the identities OME
will generate. A Virtual I/O pool may contain identity definitions for different types of identities.
14.2 Types of identities
Virtual I/O pools may contain different identity type definitions. Identity types define the identity properties
required for a specific network protocol. For example, Ethernet MAC address.
An identity type is defined by specifying the start address and the actual number of identities (except for IQN
which is defined by an IQN seed string) or by importing identities from the file. All the generated identities of
the specific identity type will begin with the provided start address. OME uses last 3 octets for generating the
necessary number of Ethernet identities, and last 5 octets in case of WWNN and WWPN identities for the
same purpose. Imported identities must be unique and pass the restriction checks mentioned below. Imported
identities are used as it is by OME.
14.2.1 MAC address definition
MAC address is used to define virtual MAC address properties. It is recommended to define this in all the
SAN types.
An example of MAC address is 00-14-22-01-23-45. Note that this will vary based on the environment and
vendor HBA cards.
Restrictions: MAC address prefixes cannot be a multicast address. A multicast address is an address with a
value of 1 in the least-significant bit of the first octet. (Therefore 01, 03, 0B etc. are not allowed).
Defined by:
• Start address
• Number of identities or imported identities
14.2.2 World Wide Node Name (WWNN) definition
WWNN address is used to define virtual WWNN address properties. It is recommended to define this in FCoE
and FC environments only.
For example, 21:00:00:e0:8b:05:05:04 is the identity for QLogic HBA card. Please note that this will vary
based on the vendor HBA cards.