Brocade Fabric OS Administrators Guide (Supporting Fabric OS v7.3.0) - Manual (Page 440)

NOTE
When an Access Gateway is connected to the switch, the Access Gateway is counted as the base
device or base login and it is not included in the NPIV device count.
Upgrade considerations
The maximum logins per switch decreased with Fabric OS v6.4.0. When upgrading from a release
previous to Fabric OS v6.4.0, the configured maximum is carried forward and may exceed the Fabric
OS v6.4.0 limit. It is recommended to reconfigure this parameter to be within the range permitted in
Fabric OS v6.4.0 and later.
Fixed addressing mode
Fixed addressing mode is the default addressing mode used in all platforms that do not have Virtual
Fabrics enabled. When Virtual Fabrics is enabled on the Brocade DCX and DCX-4S, fixed addressing
mode is used only on the default logical switch. The number of NPIV devices supported on shared
area ports (48-port blades) is reduced to 64 from 128 when Virtual Fabrics mode is enabled.
10-bit addressing mode
The 10-bit addressing mode is the default mode for all the logical switches created in the Brocade
DCX, DCX 8510, and DCX-4S Backbones. The number of NPIV or loop devices supported on a port is
64.
The following table shows the number of NPIV devices supported on the Brocade DCX, DCX 8510,
and DCX-4S Backbones.
Number of supported NPIV devices TABLE 81
Platform Virtual Fabrics Logical switch type NPIV support
DCX and
DCX 8510-8 Disabled N/A Yes, 127 virtual device limit. 17
DCX and
DCX 8510-8 Enabled Default switch Yes, 63 virtual device limit. 17
DCX and
DCX 8510-8 Enabled Logical switch Yes, 255 virtual device limit., 18 19
DCX and
DCX 8510-8 Enabled Base switch No.
DCX-4S and
DCX 8510-4 Disabled N/A Yes, 255 virtual device limit.
17 Maximum limit support takes precedence if user-configured maximum limit is greater. This applies to shared areas on the FC4-48,
FC8-48, and FC8-64 port blades.
18 The first 112 physical NPIV-capable devices connected to a logical switch using 10-bit addressing can log in 255 logical devices. The
physical NPIV-capable devices after 112, 113, and higher, are limited to 63 logical devices.
19 Maximum limit of 63 for 10-bit areas connected to third-party (non-Brocade) NPIV HBAs.
Upgrade considerations
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