Installation guide

EMC Host Connectivity with QLogic Fibre Channel and iSCSI (HBAs) and (CNAs) for the Linux Environment

Introduction

Purpose of this document

This document is meant to assist in the installation and configuration

of QLogic host bus adapters (HBAs) and Fibre Channel Over

Ethernet (FCoE) converged network adapters (CNAs) in Linux

environments. The focus of this document is to enable the integrated

Qlogic driver in the Linux distributions for Fibre Channel adapters,

and to set up Linux hosts using the EMC-supported driver for Qlogic

FCoE adapters, available from the EMC-approved section of the

QLogic website.

Host connectivity

Review the EMC Support Matrix or contact your EMC

representative

for the latest information on qualified adapters, drivers, and Linux

distributions.

Note: EMC does not support mixing different types of Fibre Channel adapter

(including different types from the same vendor) in a server.

Fibre Channel

The Fibre Channel adapter driver functions as a device driver layer

below the standard Linux SCSI adapter driver. The Fibre Channel

interface therefore is transparent to the Linux disk administration

system.

Fibre Channel over Ethernet

EMC now supports the QLogic Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)

Converged Network Adapter (CNA). FCoE adapters provide a

method to converge both Fibre Channel and Ethernet traffic over a

single physical link to a switch infrastructure which manages both

storage (SAN) and network (IP) connectivity within a single unit.

The benefits of FCoE technology become apparent in large data

centers:

◆ Where dense, rack-mounted and blade server chassis exist.

◆ Where physical cable topology simplification is a priority.