Product specifications

1 – Introduction
QLogic FC Adapter NPIV Solution
FC0054604-00 A 1-3
a
NPIV allows a single physical FC HBA port to function as multiple logical ports,
each with its World Wide Port Name (WWPN), as shown in Figure 1-1.
Figure 1-1. N_Port ID Sharing
QLogic FC Adapter NPIV Solution
To complement Microsoft and other server virtualization software solutions,
QLogic has extended virtualization capabilities to the HBA hardware through
NPIV. All QLogic 2400 and 2500 series FC adapters implement and support NPIV.
QLogic provides support for creating, deleting, and managing NPIV ports through
its SANsurfer
®
FC HBA Manager tool.
With the combined QLogic and Microsoft solution, storage administrators can
create virtual HBA ports within multiple zones and assign them to VMs for
migration without having to reconfigure any zoning or LUN masking settings. This
solution creates a virtualized network that is easier to manage and maintain. In
addition, support for Microsoft’s virtualization solutions combined with QLogic’s
HBA virtualization technologies further increase hardware utilization and enables
organizations to rapidly configure and deploy Virtual Machines.
Benefits of the QLogic NPIV solution include:
 Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
 Increased Security and Flexibility
 Simplified Virtualization Management
 Higher Availability