Administrator Guide
Figure 96. NPIV Proxy Gateway Example
An S5000 FC port is congured 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 identier 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 S5000 Ten-Gigabit Ethernet ports and log in to an upstream FC core
switch through the S5000 N port. Server fabric login (FLOGI) requests are converted into fabric discovery (FDISC) requests before the
S5000 forwards them 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 congured on the S5000 gateway to prevent unauthorized access and data transmission to the SAN
network (see FCoE Transit). Server CNAs use FIP to discover an S5000 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
S5000 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 congure 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 (the 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.)
NPIV Proxy Gateway
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