Users Guide

An FX2 chassis FC port is congured as an N (node) port that logs in to an F (fabric) port on the upstream FC core switch and creates a
channel for N-port identier virtualization. NPIV allows multiple N-port fabric logins at the same time on a single, physical Fibre Channel
link.
Converged Network Adapter (CNA) ports on servers connect to the FX2 chassis Ten-Gigabit Ethernet ports and log in to an upstream FC
core switch through the N port. Server fabric login (FLOGI) requests are converted into fabric discovery (FDISC) requests before being
forwarded to the FC core switch.
Servers use CNA ports to connect over FCoE to an Ethernet port in ENode mode on the NPIV proxy gateway. FCoE transit with FIP
snooping is automatically enabled and congured on the FX2 gateway to prevent unauthorized access and data transmission to the SAN
network. FIP is used by server CNAs to discover an FCoE switch operating as an FCoE forwarder (FCF).
The NPIV proxy gateway aggregates multiple locally connected server CNA ports into one or more upstream N port links, conserving the
number of ports required on an upstream FC core switch while providing an FCoE-to-FC bridging functionality. The upstream N ports on an
FX2 can connect to the same or multiple fabrics.
Using an FCoE map applied to downstream (server-facing) Ethernet ports and upstream (fabric-facing) FC ports, you can congure the
association between a SAN fabric and the FCoE VLAN that connects servers over the NPIV proxy gateway to FC switches in the fabric. An
FCoE map virtualizes the upstream SAN fabric as an FCF to downstream CNA ports on FCoE-enabled servers as follows:
• As soon as an FC N port comes online (no shutdown command), the NPG starts sending FIP multicast advertisements, which
contain the fabric name derived from the 64-bit worldwide name (WWN) of the principal SAN switch. (The principal switch in a fabric
is the FC switch with the lowest domain ID.)
• When you apply the FCoE map to a server-facing Ethernet port in ENode mode, ACLs are automatically congured to allow only FCoE
trac from servers that perform a successful FLOGI on the FC switch. All other trac on the VLAN is denied.
You can specify one or more upstream N ports in an FCoE map. The FCoE map also contains the VLAN ID of the dedicated VLAN used to
transmit FCoE trac between the SAN fabric and servers.
NPIV Proxy Gateway: Protocol Services
The Aggregator with the NPG provides the following protocol services:
• Fibre Channel service to create N ports and log in to an upstream FC switch.
• FCoE service to perform:
• Virtualization of FC N ports on an NPG so that they appear as FCoE FCFs to downstream servers.
• NPIV service to perform the association and aggregation of FCoE servers to upstream F ports on core switches (through N ports
on the NPG). Conversion of server FLOGIs and FDISCs, which are received over the Aggregator with the ENode ports, are
converted into FDISCs addressed to the upstream F ports on core switches.
NPIV Proxy Gateway Functionality
The Aggregator with the NPG provides the following functionality in a storage area network:
• FIP Snooping bridge that provides security for FCoE trac using ACLs.
• FCoE gateway that provides FCoE-to-FC bridging. N-port virtualization using FCoE maps exposes upstream F ports as FCF ports to
downstream server-facing ENode ports on the NPG.
NPIV Proxy Gateway: Terms and Denitions
The following table describes the terms used in an NPG conguration on the Aggregator.
NPIV Proxy Gateway
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