2 fabric attach fibre channel networks, 3 direct attach fibre channel networks, 4 fibre channel networks and fcoe – HP OneView User Manual

Page 140: 6 about ethernet networks, 1 about tagged ethernet networks

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18.5.2 Fabric attach Fibre Channel networks

SAN infrastructures typically use a Fibre Channel switching solution involving several SAN switches
that implement NPIV (N-Port ID Virtualization) technology. NPIV uses N-ports and F-ports to build
a Fibre Channel SAN fabric. NPIV enables multiple N_Ports to connect to a switch through a single
F_Port, so that a virtual server can share a single physical port with other servers, but access only
its associated storage on the SAN.

When you configure a fabric attach Fibre Channel network, the port you choose for the uplink
from the enclosure interconnect to the storage SAN must support NPIV (N_Port ID Virtualization).

You can use HP Virtual Connect Fibre Channel modules to connect storage. The appliance manages
up to six Virtual Connect Fibre Channel modules in bays 3 through 8 of an enclosure. Virtual
Connect Fibre Channel modules are not supported in bay 1 and bay 2.

18.5.3 Direct attach Fibre Channel networks

The direct attach Fibre Channel solution, also called the Flat SAN solution, eliminates the need for
a connection from the enclosure interconnects to a Fibre Channel SAN switch. This means you can
connect the enclosure interconnects directly to the storage system. The port you choose for the
uplink from the enclosure interconnect to the storage system must support NPIV.

Servers connecting to a direct attach Fibre Channel network have access to all devices connected
on the uplink ports defined for that network. If there is more than one connection from a FlexFabric
module to the storage system, each server can access as many paths to the storage LUN (logical
unit number) as there are connections to the storage system.

For direct attach Fibre Channel networks, the enclosure interconnect does not distribute server
logins evenly across uplink ports. Server login-balancing and login-distribution do not apply to
Fibre Channel networks.

IMPORTANT:

When you move a server profile to a different enclosure, and the profile is configured

to boot from a direct attach storage system, you must manually update the boot connection of the
profile to specify the WWPN (World Wide Port Name) used for the storage system that is directly
attached to the enclosure.

Each enclosure connects to a different port of the direct attach storage system, so the WWPN for
that storage system is different for each enclosure. If you do not specify the correct WWPN and
LUN for the storage system, the server will not boot successfully from the boot target.

18.5.4 Fibre Channel networks and FCoE

Servers connect to the enclosure interconnect downlinks using FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet),
and uplink to SANs and direct attach storage systems using Fibre Channel. The interconnects
automatically handle the routing between the server blades and the Fibre Channel networks, so
you do not need to specify a VLAN (virtual local area network) ID for a Fibre Channel network.

18.6 About Ethernet networks

You use Ethernet networks as data networks. You can create the following types of Ethernet networks:

18.6.1 About tagged Ethernet networks

A tagged network uses virtual LANs (VLANs), allowing multiple networks to use the same physical
connections. By sharing physical uplinks, you can separate traffic streams from different servers
on the same set of uplinks. Server profiles can specify networks without knowledge of the hardware
configuration of the data center network.

140 Managing networks and network resources

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