.SAN design reference guide Vol. 1-5 785350-001

disruption when a link fails between an NP_Port on the NPV devices and an F_Port on the external
fabric. To avoid disruption when an NP_Port goes online, the logins are not redistributed.
NPV mode considerations
Consider the following:
• Nondisruptive upgrades are supported.
• Grouping devices into different VSANs is supported.
• A load-balancing algorithm automatically assigns end devices in a VSAN to one of the NPV
core switch links (in the same VSAN) at initial login.
• You can connect B-series and C-series fabrics without interoperability constraints (for support
information, see the release notes).
• A flexible licensing option is available (12 or 24 ports, with a 12-port upgrade option on the
12-port model).
• You can select to use either switch mode or NPV mode.
• Failover between NP_Ports (uplinks) is supported.
• Direct storage attachment is not supported (requires at least one external Fibre Channel switch).
• F_Ports, NP_Ports, and SD_Ports are supported.
• NPIV-capable module servers (nested NPIV) are supported.
• Local switching is not supported. All traffic is switched using the NPV core switch.
• Remote SPAN is not supported.
• NPV mode is managed separately from the BladeSystem; however, if used with C-series
switches, it uses a common SAN-OS.
NPV mode connectivity guidelines
NPV solutions are best suited for C-series-only fabrics in which you want multivendor switch
interoperability through NP_Ports instead of E_Ports. Figure 62 (page 174) shows an NPV device
with dual redundant fabrics.
Figure 62 NPV device with dual redundant fabrics
NP_Ports (NPIV) (uplinks)
Blade
enclosure
with
16 servers
Server Bay 1 Server Bay 2
Server Bay 3
Server Bay 4
Server Bay 5
Server Bay 6
Server Bay 7 Server Bay 8 Server Bay 9
Server Bay 10 Server Bay 11
Server Bay 12
Server Bay 13 Server Bay 14 Server Bay 15 Server Bay 16
N_Port Virtualization N_Port Virtualization
Blade
enclosure/
Server
management
SAN/
Storage
management
25346e
FC Fabric (B-series,
C-series, and H-series)
(with NPIV F_Port support)
FC Fabric (B-series,
C-series, and H-series)
(with NPIV F_Port support)
NOTE: The NP_Ports in Figure 62 (page 174) are not host N_Ports and cannot connect directly
to storage.
174 Heterogeneous server rules