Virtual Connectivity NPIV

and Access Gateway

Module 2
HK911S A.00

HP Education Services
2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
The information contained herein is subject to change without notice

Objectives
After the completion of this module
delegates will be able to:

Explain the implementation of NPIV and

its benefits

Describe Access gateway functionality

and its features.

2- 2

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) - Overview

2- 3

In a Virtual Server
environment, servers
require access to storage
just as if they were a
normal physical server
With the introduction of
NPIV a physical server is
able to provide
independent paths to a
storage array for separate
virtual servers. Enabling a
single Fibre Channel Port to
appear as multiple single
ports
Because the virtual port
has the same
characteristics of an N_Port
it isCompany,
capable
of performing
HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development
L.P

N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV)

2- 4

NPIV is defined in the FC-LS T11

Standard
NPIV is assigned on a per-port basis
Each NPIV device is assigned a unique:
Device PID
Port WWN
Node WWN
In a fabric the NPIV device acts the
same as all other physical devices in the
fabric
HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

NPIV Zoning
Perform PWWN zoning on the switch for each
virtual machine and the storage array
Perform LUN masking (SSP) on the Storage Array
for each virtual server to isolate the disk from
other virtual instances.

Each Virtual Machine

have their own WWN
VM1

VM2

VM3

VM1_Zone
1
VM2_Zone
2
VM3_Zone
3
VM4_Zone
4

VM4

Zoning
performed on
the switch
using PWWN
2- 5

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

LUN masking
(Selective
Storage
Presentation)
performed on
the Storage
array

NPIV Scalability

Fabric OS default is each NPIV enabled port on the

switch can support up to126 devices.
By using the configure command each NPIV enabled
port can be increased to support up to 255 devices
On the 48-port blades the shared area ports (16
47) the limit is 127.
When Virtual Fabric mode is enabled on a 48 port
blade the number of NPIV devices supported on the
shared are is reduced from 127 to 63.

2- 6

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

NPIV Requirements

2- 7

Switches NPIV needs to be supported on the

switch connected to the HBA. Currently all
Brocade FC support NPIV provided they are
running FOS v5.1 or later
HBAs must support NPIV currently the
supported solutions are:
Brocade - 4 and 8 Gbps FC HBA
Emulex - 4Gbps firmware revision2.70a5 or
later
Emulex - 8Gbps firmware revision 1.00a9 or
later
Qlogic 4 or 8Gbps HBA
Storage NPIV is completely transparent to
HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

NPIV Commands

2- 8

Portcfgnpivport enable/disable NPIV on a FC

port
Portcfgshow displays the NPIV status for
each port
Portshow Views the NPIV attributes and all
the N_Port. Physical and vitual port WWWNs
are listed under portwwn of device(s)
connected.
Switchshow for an NPIV F_Port there are
multiple N_Ports each with a different port
WWN. The output indicates whether or not a
port is an NPIV F_Port and indicates the number
of virtual N_Ports behind it.
HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Access Gateway

2- 9

Designed to connect numerous servers with minimal

impact to an existing fabric.
Use Access Gateway (AG) when you have switches
from different vendors.
AG is included in the base Fabric OS no separate
license is required
AG focuses on connectivity, bandwidth is shared
Attached F_Port devices must be Fibre Channel
Protocol (FCP) initiators or targets
Items that are not supported are : loop devices,
FICON, virtual iSCSI initiators

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Access Gateway ports

Access Gateway ports can be configured as N_Ports

which connect to the edge fabric
Hosts/HBAs are mapped (through NPIV) to the N_Ports,
and connect to the fabric through the N_Ports
No fabric management or Zoning required on the
Access Gateway

Access Gateway

Fabric
Switch

N_Ports
F_Ports
F_Port with NPIV enabled
2- 10

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Supported
Platforms
Brocade 300

Current 8Gbps Embedded Blade

Server Switches
Dell

M5424 24
-Port

PowerEdge
M1000e

Fujits
u

5450 26 Port

PRIMERGY BX900

Hitach 5460 26 i
Port

Blade Symphony

HP

5480 24 Port

Blade C- Class

HP

5481 24 Port

Virtual Connect

HP

5410 12-Port

EVA4400 - S

IBM

5470 20
Blade Center
HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P
Port

2- 11

Brocade 5100

VA-40FC

Embedded Blade
Switch

Access Gateway (AG) Disabled Features

When a switch is configured as an Access
gateway, some features are disabled, these
include:

Advanced Performance Monitoring

Extended Fabric services
FICON (includes CUP)
IP over FC
Zoning
Management Services
Name Service (SNS)
Port Mirroring
SMI-S

These features are only disabled on the AG

but are still available in the rest of the fabric
All switches must have all available Ports on Demand (POD)
HK911S A.00
2011 Hewlett-Packard
Development
Company, L.P
licenses installed
before
a switch
is configured
for Access
2- 12

Default Port Mapping (AG)

Brocade 300 in
AG Mode

Port 0
Access Gateway uses a port
map to direct traffic from host
Port 1
HBAs to the N_Ports that
Port 2
connect to the fabric
Port 3
Each F_Port has a primary
Port 4
N_Port that is used to
connect to the fabric
Port 5
The port map and N_Port
Port 6
configuration can be
changed
Port 7
Enabling Access Gateway
Port 14
enables the default port group
Port 15
as seen in the Brocade 300
example below:
N_Ports: 16 23
Two F_Ports are mapped to
HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P
2- 13 each N_Port

Port 16

Port 17

Port 18

Port 19

Port 23

F_Port
N_Port

Assigning a 24 bit PID (AG)

Brocade 300 in
AG Mode

060001
Port 0
060002
0A0201
060101

Port 2

Switch A
Port 16
060000 Port 0 Domain ID = 6
Port 1

Port 3

Port 17
060100

Port 1

Port 4
0A0202

060102

F_Port with NPIV Enabled

Port 18
060200

Port 5
Port 6

060201
0A0301
060202

Port 19
0A0200

Port 7
Port 14

Port 23
0A0300

Port 15
0A0302

2- 14

Port 2

F_Port
N_Port
HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Switch B
Domain ID =
Port 2 10
Port 3

Access Gateway - Initialization

Because Access Gateway is logically
transparent to the fabric, the initialization
process is performed in stages:
1. N_Ports come on line first
2. F_Ports are mapped to the N_Ports
according to the port map
3. If the N_Port does not come online and
failover is enabled, F_Ports are remapped
4. F_Ports are enabled
5. Hosts login to the fabric

2- 15

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Access Gateway Device Login Procedure

1. The N_Port of the AG logs in to the fabric using a FLOGI
2. The Switch in the fabric responds with a Flogi Acc
3. The Host issues a FLOGI request to the AG F_Port to which it is
attached
4. AG passes the Fabric login request to the N_Port to which the
F_Port is mapped and the N_Port transforms the Flogi request
to a Fabric Discovery request which is transmitted to the
fabric
5. Fabric Discovery Accept response is received from the fabric
6. The F_Port transforms the Fdisc Acc response in to a fabric
Login Accept (Flogi Acc) Rresponse which is passed on to the
N_Ports
F_Ports
F_Port with NPIV enabled
host
Access Gateway

3. Flogi
6. Flogi Acc
2- 16

1. Flogi
4. Fdisc

2. Flogi Acc
5. Fdisc Acc

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Fabric

Access Gateway N_Port failover

06010
060001
3
06020
060002
3
060101

Brocade 300 in
AG Mode
Port 0

Port 2

Switch A
Port 16
060000 Port 0 Domain ID = 6
Port 1

Port 3

Port 17
060100

Port 1

Port 4
060102

F_Port with NPIV Enabled

Port 18
060200

Port 5
Port 6

060201

Port 19
0A0200

Port 7
Port 14

If an N_Port
goes offline the
060202
Port 15
Access Gateway N_Port
failover policy allows
automatically remaps the host
to another online N_Port
2- 17

Port 2

Port 2

Switch B
Domain ID =
10

Port 3

Port 23
0A0300
F_Port
N_Port

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Next Slide

Access Gateway N_Port failback

06010
060001
3
06020
060002
3
060101

Brocade 300 in
AG Mode
Port 0

Port 2

Switch A
Port 16
060000 Port 0 Domain ID = 6
Port 1

Port 3

Port 17
060100

Port 1

Port 4
060102

F_Port with NPIV Enabled

Port 18
060200

Port 5
Port 6

060201

Port 19
0A0200

Port 7
Port 14

If an N_Port060202
come back online
Port 15
the Access Gateway N_Port
failover policy automatcally
remaps the host back to the
original primary N_Port
2- 18

Port 2

Port 2

Switch B
Domain ID =
10

Port 3

Port 23
0A0300
F_Port
N_Port

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Next slide

Enabling Access Gateway

1.
2.
3.
4.

5.

6.

2- 19

Upload the current configuration of the switch

configupload
Disable the switch switchdisable
Enable Access gateway - ag modeenable
After the switch has rebooted verify the Access
Gateway mode is enabled by using the
command
ag modeshow
Review the mapped ports with the command
ag mapshow
To check the F_Port and N_Port addresses use
the switchshow command
HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Changing the Ports Map on Access

Gateway
In AG mode, by default, the F_Ports are mapped to a
set of predefined N_Ports.
To Change the port mapping - If the F_Port is already
assigned to an N_Port, you must remove it from the
N_Port before you can add it. To delete F_port from
currently mapped N_Ports. E.g (ports 4 and 5)
ag mapdel 18 4
ag mapdel 18 5
To assign the F_ports 4 and 5 to another N_port e.g. 23
ag mapadd 23 4;5
Review the update.
ag mapshow
ag --Show

2- 20

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Access Gateway Failover - Failback

The Failover policy allows hosts to automatically

remap to an online N_Port if the primary N_Port goes
offline.
Failover can be displayed, enabled and disabled per
N_Port:
ag failovershow [N_Port]
ag failoverenable <N_Port>
ag failoverdisable <N_Port>
Failback can be displayed, enabled and disabled per
N_Port:
ag failbackshow [N_Port]
ag failbackenable <N_Port>
ag failbackenable <N_Port>

2- 21

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Disabling Access Gateway

2- 22

Before disabling Access Gateway mode, upload

the configuration first and then disable the
switch.
configupload
ag modedisable (this command will force the
switch to reboot).
if the switch had a configuration previous to
Access Gateway being set restore the original
configuration.
switchdisable
configdownload
switchenable
HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Access Gateway -Policies

Port Grouping (PG)

Limits N_Port failover to occur only within a
user-defined group of ports enabled by default
Auto Port Configuration Automatically detects
F_Ports and N_Ports
Automatically maps the ports
Disabled by default
Advanced Device Security (ADS)
extents the DCC policy to the physical F_Ports
and the NPIV logins on F_Ports.
To enable/disable an AG policy (PG, Auto or ADS)
ag policyenable or ag policydisable
ag policyshow can be used to display the
policy states

2- 23

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Access Gateway Port Grouping

Switch A
Domain ID = 6

Brocade 300 in
060001
By default a port
AG Mode
group are required
Port 0
Port 0
to connect all
Port 16
060002
Fabric 1
N_Ports to the same
Port 1
060000
fabric.
Port 1
Port 2
0A0101
Port
17
Port Grouping limits
Switch B
N_Port Failover to
0A0100
Port 3
Domain ID =
occur only within a
0A0102 Port 4
10
user-defined group
Port 20
of ports.
Switch C
040301 Port 5
040300
Allows for the
Domain ID = 4
connection of AG
Port 6
Port 22
Port 3
040302
devices to be
Port 7
attached to multiple
0B0400
Fabric2
edge switches
0B0401
Port 4
F_Port
User-defined port
N_Port
groups must be
Switch D
0B0402
created if an AG
Domain ID =
device is to be
11
F_Port with NPIV Enabled
allowed connection
to more than one
HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

2- 24

Access Gateway Port Grouping failover

N_port
failover and
failback only
occur within a
Port Group
If all the
N_ports in a
Port Group go
offline, the
mapped ports
will go offline
There can be
up to 15 Port
Groups per
Access
Gateway
device

Next Slide
2- 25

Switch A
Domain ID = 6

Brocade 300 in
AG Mode
Port 0
Port 16
060002
Port 1
060000
0A0101 Port 2
0060003
Port 17
060001

Port 3

Port 20

00B0403
040301 Port 5

040300

Port 6

Port 22

0B0401

Port 7

Fabric 1
Port 1
Switch B
Domain ID =
10

0A0100

0A0102 Port 4
0060004

040302
00B0404

Port 0

Switch C
Domain ID = 4
Port 3

Fabric2

0B0400
F_Port
N_Port

Port 4

0B0402
F_Port with NPIV Enabled

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Switch D
Domain ID =
11

Access Gateway Port Grouping

Commands

2- 26

To display information about a Port Group use

the command:
ag pgshow
To create a Port Group the commands are:
ag pgcreate 1 port;port n group number
e.g.
ag pgreate 1 16;17 n group1
ag pcreate 2 20;22 n group2

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Access Gateway policy enforcement

matrix
Policies

Auto Port
Configuratio
n

Port
Grouping

N_Port
Trunking

ADS Policy

Auto Port
Configuratio
n

N/A

Mutually
Exclusive

Can coexist

Can Co-exist

Port
Grouping

Mutually
Exclusive

N/A

Can coexist

Can co-exist

N_Port
Trunking

Can co-exist

Can coexist

N/A

Can co-exist

ADS Policy

Can co-exist

Can coexist

Can coexist

N/A

2- 27

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Access Gateway Preferred Ports

2- 28

When aport is configured as an N_Port and if by

default, the Failover policy is enabled, F_Ports
are not disabled if its N_Port goes off line.
specify a Preferred Secondary N_Port for any of
the F_Ports, and if the N_Port goes offline, the
F_Ports will fail over to the Preferred Secondary
N_Port, and then re-enable.
if a Preferred Secondary N_Port is not set for
any of F_Ports, the F_Ports will fail over to other
online N_Ports belonging to the same N_Port
group, and then re-enable.

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Access Gateway Preferred commands

2- 29

To Display the preferred N_Port for an F_Port the

command is:
ag prefshow
To set the preferred N_Port for an F_Port use the
command:
ag prefset F_Port1;FPort2 N_Port
e.g. ag prefset 0;1 20
To delete the preferred N_Port to F_Port
relationship
ag prefdel F_Port1;FPort2 N_Port
e.g. ag prefdel 0;1 20
HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Access Gateway F_Port Trunking

Has the same features as ISL Trunking in that it
aggregates all the bandwidth of the trunk.
Requires a license on both the Edge switch and
the Access Gateway
Port Group to Port Group and must be the same
speed
Requires configuration as trunking is not
automatically enabled
Has been available since the introduction of FOS
v6.1
Access Gateway

2- 30

Edge Switch

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Access Gateway F_Port Trunking Trunk

Area

2- 31

Trunks use a shared port area ID-index called a

Trunk Area (TA)
enable trunking on all ports to be included in a
Trunk Area before you can create a Trunk Area.
This is performed on the Edge Switch.
When a TA is created one of the indexes for a
trunk port members is used to identify the trunk
The ports within the TA group will have the
same Index

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Access Gateway Port Trunking

Brocade 300 in
AG Mode
Port 0
060000
Port 16
060002
Port 1
Port 17
Port
2
060003
060000
060001

Switch A
Domain ID = 6

All N_ports
Port 0
within the same
Port 1
F_Port trunk
area share the
same Port ID
Fabric 1
Port 3
Each F_port
060004 Port 4
Switch B
trunk has a
0A0300
Domain ID =
Port
5
trunk master
0A0301
Port 20 Port 3 10
N_Port
Port 6
Port 22
Port 4
Frames that are 0A0302
0A0300
Port 7
received on any
F_Port within a
0A0303
F_Port
trunk are load
N_Port
balanced
0A0304
across all
F_Port with NPIV Enabled
members
HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P
2- 32 within the

F_Port Trunking Commands

To create the TA ports on the edge switch disable the

ports and enter the following command:
porttrunkarea --enable [slot/]port[-Range] index
port_index
e.g. porttrunkrear enable 0-4 index 0
Other commands related to the port trunk area
are:
porttrunkarea --disable [slot/]port[-Range]
porttrunkarea --disable all
porttrunkarea --show disabled | enabled | trunk |
all
porttrunkarea --show slot/port[-Range]

2- 33

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Access Gateway Port Grouping Trunking

Brocade 300 in
AG Mode
Port 0
060000
Port 16
060002
Port 1
Port 17
Port
2
060003
060000
060001

Port 3
060004 Port 4
0A0301 Port 5
060005
0A0302
060006
0A0303
060007

Switch A
Domain ID = 6
Port 0
Port 1

Fabric 1

Switch B
0A0300
Domain ID =
Port 20 Port 3 10

Port 6

Port 22

Port 7

0A0300

Port 4

F_Port
N_Port

0A0304
060008

Next Slide
2- 34

F_Port with NPIV Enabled

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

Summary
This section covered.
Implementing and configuration of NPIV
Configuring and deploying Access Gateway,
configuring failover and failback.
The use of F_Port Trunking and Trunk Areas

2- 35

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P

HK911S A.00 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P