HP 8.20q Fibre Channel Switch - Manual (Page 94)

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partition A portion of a physical disk that functions as if it were a physically separate unit and is
dedicated to a particular operating system or application and accessed as a single unit.
path A path to a device is a combination of a HBA port instance and a target port as distinct from
internal paths in the fabric network. A fabric network appears to the operating system as an
opaque network between the HBA (initiator) and the target.
Since a path is a combination of an HBA and a target port, it is distinct from another path if it
is accessed through a different HBA and/or it is accessing a different target port.
Consequently, when switching from one path to another, the driver might be selecting a
different HBA (initiator), a different target port, or both.
This is important to the driver when selecting the proper method of failover notification. It can
make a difference to the target device, which might have to take different actions when
receiving retries of the request from another initiator or on a different port.
PCI Express (PCIe) A third-generation input/output (I/O) standard that allows enhanced Ethernet network
performance beyond that of the older Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) and PCI
Extended (PCI-X) desktop and server slots. The higher performance of PCI Express derives from
its faster, serial-bus architecture, which provides a dedicated, bi-directional I/O with 2.5-GHz
clocking, beneficial to Ethernet network connectivity for desktops, workstations, and servers.
port Access points in a device where a link attaches. There are four types of ports, as follows:
• N_Port (Node Port)—an FC port that supports point-to-point topology.
• NL_Port (Node Loop Port)—an FC port that supports loop topology.
• F_Port (Fabric Port)—a port in a fabric where an N_Port can attach.
• FL_Port (Fabric Loop Port)—a port in a fabric where an NL_Port can attach.
port instance The number of a port in the system. Each HBA may have one or multiple ports, identified with
regard to the HBA as port 0, port 1 and so forth. to avoid confusion when dealing with a
system containing numerous ports, each port is assigned a port instance number when the
system boots up. So Port 0 on an HBA might have a port instance number of, for example, 8 if
it is the eighth port discovered by the system.
SAN (Storage Area
Network)
Multiple storage units (disk drives) and servers connected by networking topology.
target The storage-device endpoint of a SCSI session. Initiators request data from targets. Targets are
typically disk-drives, tape-drives, or other media devices. Typically a SCSI peripheral device is
the target, but a host bus adapter may, in some cases, be a target. A target can contain many
LUNs.
A target is a device that responds to a requested by an initiator (the host system). Peripherals
are targets, but for some commands (for example, a SCSI COPY command), the peripheral
may act as an initiator.
target binding The process in which the HBA driver binds a target ID using a target’s world wide port name
(WWPN) or port ID. This enables the target ID to always connect to the WWPN or port ID
across reboots regardless of SAN reconfigurations.
topology The collection of components that connect ports. Topologies are also shorthand descriptions of
the physical layouts, or shapes, of networks. A topology defines different aspects of device
connection or configuration—including the kinds of devices that can be configured, the number
of devices, and the way they can be configured. Simple SAN Connection Manager enables
you to save and compare topologies.
VDS Virtual Disk Service (VDS) is a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that provides a
single interface for managing disks. VDS provides an end-to-end solution for managing storage
hardware and disks, and for creating volumes on those disks.