Virtual Connect FC connectivity to SAN Switch

[Dik H]

Hi

I'm new to blade systems and trying to understand the Vitual Connect FC connectivity. I'm using BL460c with 1 NC373 & 1 QMH2462 with 4 VC Enet and 2 VC FC as interconnects. My question is do I need also Brocade 4/12 in my interconnects in order to connect to SAN switch 4/8 (to connect to EVA4000). I gather that the san switch should support NPIV if using VC FC. However no docs mention that SAN Switch 4/8 has NPIV. I also found a doc stating that VC FC should connect to NPIV capable devices such as Brocade, Cisco & MCData.. StorageWorks SAN Switch 4/8 is not mentionned. Can anyone pls enlighten me further? Thx

[Paul_637]

You would normally go from the VC-FC to Switch to Storage. You shouldn't need another interconnect (as you already have the VC-FC) within the enclosure to connect to anything.

I happen to use the switch 4/32. HP docs suggest that "all recent" HP SAN switches support NPIV enabled "out of the box". With yours being a 4Gb switch, I'd be surprised if that didn't qualify.

My complete setup is 2 x VC-FC -> 2 x 4/32 -> EVA4k

Hope this helps.

Paul

[Dik H]

Hi Paul

Many thanks for the feedback. I understand that we should be able to enable NPIV with the latest firmware loaded on San Switch. So basically I will be using 2*VC-FC + 2 StorageWorks SAN Switch 4/8 + EVA4K.
Hope that works! If it's working in ur case, should be working with 4/8 also I believe.

Thanks for info.

[Digex]

We have new HP 4/8 switches and was wondering how can you verify if NPIV is enable? Firmware version 5.31d

[Blazhev_1]

Hi,

by default all Brocade 4Gb capable Fibre Channel switches are by default configured with NPIV enabled.

To enable NPIV on all other Brocade Fibre Channel Switches use the following Fabric OS CLI procedure.
1. To enable or disable NPIV on a port-by-port basis From Brocade Fabric OS CLI use the

portCfgNPIVPort command.

Example: To enable NPIV on port 10 enter following command:
switch:admin> portCfgNPIVPort 10, 1

with supportshow you can check the NPIV status...

Pac