HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet Module for c-Class BladeSystem - Manual (Page 87)

Storage management 87
Storage management
Storage overview
The Virtual Connect Fibre Channel modules enable the c-Class administrator to reduce FC cabling by
making use of N_Port_ID virtualization (NPIV). The HP VC-FC acts as an HBA aggregator where each
NPIV-enabled N-port uplink can carry the FC traffic for multiple HBAs.
Because it uses an N-port uplink, it can be connected to data center Brocade, McData, Cisco, and Qlogic
FC switches that support the NPIV protocol. When the server blade HBAs log in to the fabric through the
VC-FC module, the HBA WWN is visible to the FC switch name server and can be managed as if it was
connected directly.
IMPORTANT: The HP Virtual Connect Fibre Channel modules must be connected to a data
center Fibre Channel switch that supports N_Port_ID virtualization (NPIV). See the switch
firmware documentation for information to determine whether a specific switch supports NPIV
and for instructions on enabling this support.
The VC-FC module has either four or eight uplinks. Each uplink is completely independent of the other
uplinks and has a capability of aggregating up to 16 physical server HBA N-port links into an N-port
uplink through the use of NPIV.
In previous versions of Virtual Connect, a one-to-one relationship existed between VC-FC uplinks and
external FC SAN fabrics. Beginning with version 1.31 of Virtual Connect Manager, users can group
multiple VC-FC module uplinks logically into a Virtual Connect fabric when attached to the same Fibre
Channel SAN fabric. Using this feature, users can access more than one FC SAN fabric in their data
center, plus have a flexible and fully redundant way to connect server blades to Fibre Channel SANs.
Now a user can connect to up to four SAN fabrics from one VC-FC module.
Virtual Connect Fabric
By default, all four of the VC-FC uplinks are grouped into a single fabric, distributing connectivity from all
16 server blades in the enclosure. If a port in the group becomes unavailable, hosts logged in through
that port are reconnected to the fabric through the remaining ports in the group, resulting in auto-failover.
However, users can redistribute the connections manually.
When static mapping of a server HBA to a Virtual Connect fabric is preferred, users can select which
specific uplink ports are members of the Virtual Connect fabric.
The mapping of the server HBA ports to uplink ports uses the mechanisms in the following tables.
VC 4Gb FC modules and the HP VC 8Gb 20-Port FC module
Number of uplinks FC connectivity for device bays
1 uplink
(Uplink 1, 2, 3, or 4) 1-16
2 uplinks in any combination
(1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 2-3, 2-4, or 3-4) Least # uplink - 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14,
16
Next # uplink - 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13,