Dell POWEREDGE M1000E - Manual (Page 50)

30 Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide
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N_Port configurations
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N_Port configurations
By default, on embedded switches, only the internal ports of Access Gateway are configured as
F_Ports. All external ports are configured (locked) as N_Ports. On standalone switches with AG
support, a preset number of ports are locked as N_Ports, and the rest of the ports operate as
standard F_Ports. Although some ports are locked as N_Ports, these ports can be converted to
F_Ports. For example,
Figure 8 on page 30 shows a host connected to external ports of an
embedded switch with the switch in AG mode. To convert an N_Port to an F_Port, first remove all
the F_Ports that are mapped to that N_Port, then unlock the port from N_Port state. Finally, define
a map for the port. It is highly recommended that all F_Ports mapped to the N_Port first be
remapped to other N_Ports before converting the N_Port to an F_Port. Also note that if the
Automatic Port Configuration (APC) policy is enabled, the port conversion is done automatically and
no user intervention is necessary. For more information on which ports are locked as N_Ports by
default, see
Table 7 on page 17.
FIGURE 8 Example of adding an external F_Port (F9) on an embedded switch
NOTE
A switch in Access Gateway mode must have at least one port configured as an N_Port. Therefore,
the maximum number of F_Ports that can be mapped to an N_Port is the number of ports on the
switch minus one.