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May 4th, 2011 03:00

NPIV Configuration steps

Hi,

Can anyone let me know how we need to configure the NPIV on the cisco switches MDS9513. I need some virtual fabric zoning using NPIV for some Virtual servers and provision the storage using those virtual FC IDs.

I have just read about the NPIV but never worked on it and don't know if there is any performance hit since at the backend it is a signle port configured into multiple one's.

Is there any procedure anyone can share which can help me configure, create and zone the virtual FC IDs and allocate storage on them.

Hope the question is clear

Thanks

Rahul

2 Intern

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20.4K Posts

May 4th, 2011 07:00

You got it right ..nothing special from the switch size. You will see something like this:

fc1/7 114 0x060001 50:06:04:84:52:a5:4e:03 50:06:04:84:52:a5:4e:03

fc1/10 114 0x060006 10:00:00:00:c9:f2:5e:1d 20:00:00:00:c9:f2:5e:1d

fc1/13 114 0x060010 50:01:10:a0:00:85:a4:84 50:01:10:a0:00:85:a4:85

fc1/13 114 0x060014 20:0a:00:0d:ec:6b:5f:40 20:72:00:0d:ec:6b:5f:41

fc1/13 114 0x060015 50:01:43:80:03:c0:0a:ac 50:01:43:80:03:c0:0a:ad

fc1/13 114 0x060016 50:01:43:80:03:c0:0e:04 50:01:43:80:03:c0:0e:05

fc1/13 114 0x060017 10:00:00:00:c9:5e:03:70 20:00:00:00:c9:5e:03:70

see port 13 has multiple WWNs

2 Intern

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20.4K Posts

May 4th, 2011 06:00

what code level is running on the switch ?

Enabling NPIV is very easy, it's an online process ..you simply enter " feature npiv".  NPIV allows multiple systems issue flogi through the same port on the switch. You will need to do something on the host side as well to enable NPIV support, i think ESX will assign each VM and "virtual" WWN and that's what you will see login to the switch. At that point you zone it to your array as if it was a physical host. Switch side is easy ..it's the host side where you have to do some configuration. If you google NPIV and vSphere you will find a lot of blogs that describe the process.

124 Posts

May 4th, 2011 06:00

Software
  BIOS:      version 1.0.9
  kickstart: version 3.3(2)
  system:    version 3.3(2)

So you are saying that, I just need to enable the feature on the switch as NPIV and then when the ESX server is connected to the switch and the system guy has enabled the ESX side to have virtual FC wwn on their sides, then it will be visible on the ports on my switch with multiple entries  like 1/10 have four entries and I can then zone the servers to the storage frame FE and map luns the normal way ?

The Multiple entries on the same port on the switch doesn't require some special zoning techniques ?

I hope i got that right.

Thanks for helping.

Regards

Rahul

124 Posts

May 4th, 2011 07:00

Thanks for your help, I will do it and let you know how it went.

Thanks again

Rahul

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