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vStart 1000v for Enterprise Virtualization using VMware vSphere: Reference Architecture
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Figure 5: Fibre Channel SAN Logical Connectivity
8.2 Storage Connectivity
Connectivity between the Dell FC SAN Module and Brocade 5100: Each blade is populated with a
QLogic QME2572 8 Gbps Fibre Channel I/O mezzanine card, which is used to connect to Fabric B. Fabric
B is populated with Dell 8|4Gbps SAN modules. The Dell FC SAN Module is configured to operate as a
port aggregator for aggregating 16 internal ports to four external ports. Dell FC SAN module port
aggregator operates in access gateway mode for providing N_Port ID virtualization (NPIV) functionality.
The following are the FC ports that the FC SAN Module uses:
 F_Port - internal fabric port that connects a blade server (HBA).
 N_Port - external node port that connects to a switch.