SAN CISCO: NPV and NPIV Concepts, Configuration with examples

I am a seasonal IT professional with a background on VMware, Storage, Backup, Unix, and Project liaison experience. I have held positions working on technologies like Netapp, EMC, IBM, Cohesity storage and Backup supporting SAN and NAS Environment. I have held roles of IT administrator, engineer, team lead and project liaison. This blog is for Storage and Backup Professionals, and content are derived from vendor as well as my own experience.

............................................................................................................................................................................

Why to Use NPV, and what is NPIV. Use Case with Examples

·      In fabric mode, each switch that joins a SAN is assigned a domain ID. Each SAN (or VSAN) supports a maximum of 239 domain IDs, so the SAN has a limit of 239 switches.

·      NPV alleviates the domain ID limit by sharing the domain ID of the core switch among multiple edge switches.

·      In NPV mode, the edge switch relays all traffic to the core switch, which provides the Fibre Channel switching capabilities. The edge switch shares the domain ID of the core switch.

·      Server interfaces are F ports on the edge switch that connect to the servers. 

·      A server interface may support multiple end devices by enabling the N port identifier virtualization (NPIV) feature. NPIV provides a means to assign multiple FC IDs to a single N port, which allows the server to assign unique FC IDs to different applications.

·      All interfaces from the edge switch to the core switch are configured as proxy N ports (NP ports). An NP uplink is a connection from an NP port on the edge switch to an F port on the core switch.

EXTERNAL INTERFACE: NP Port (That connects to the Core Switch F-Port and does fabric logins)

SERVER INTERFACE: F Port (That connects to Client hosts)

Enabling NPV

	Command	Purpose
Step 1	switch# configure terminal switch(config)#	Enters configuration mode.
Step 2	switch(config)# npv enable	Enables NPV mode. The switch reboots, and it comes back up in NPV mode. Note A write-erase is performed during the initialization.
Step 3	switch(config-npv)# no npv enable switch(config)#	Disables NPV mode, which results in a reload of the switch.

Configuring NPV Interfaces

After you enable NPV, you should configure the NP uplink interfaces and the server interfaces. 

	Command	Purpose
Step 1	switch# configure terminal switch(config)#	Enters configuration mode.
Step 2	switch(config)# interface fc slot/port	Selects an interface that will be connected to the core NPV switch.
Step 3	switch(config-if)# switchport mode NP switch(config-if)# no shutdown	Configures the interface as an NP port. Brings up the interface.

To configure a server interface, perform this task:

	Command	Purpose
Step 1	switch# configure terminal switch(config)#	Enters configuration mode.
Step 2	switch(config)# interface { fc slot/port | vfc vfc-id }	Selects a server interface.
Step 3	switch(config-if)# switchport mode F switch(config-if)# no shutdown	Configures the interface as an F port. Brings up the interface.

NPV Traffic Maps

An NPV traffic map associates one or more NP uplink interfaces with a server interface.

To configure a traffic map, perform this task:

	Command	Purpose
Step 1	switch# config t switch(config)#	Enters configuration mode on the NPV.
Step 2	switch(config)# npv traffic-map server-interface { fc slot/port | vfc vfc-id } e xternal-interface fc slot/port switch (config)#	Configures a mapping between a server interface (or range of server interfaces) and an NP uplink interface (or range of NP uplink interfaces).
	switch(config)# no npv traffic-map server-interface { fc slot/port | vfc vfc-id } external-interface fc slot/port switch (config)#	Removes the mapping between the specified server interfaces and NP uplink interfaces.

Verifying NPV

Command	Purpose
switch# show npv flogi-table [ all ]	Displays the NPV configuration.

Display a list of devices on a server interface and their assigned NP uplinks,

Display the status of the server interfaces and the NP uplink interfaces,

switch# show npv status

npiv is enabled

External Interfaces:

====================

Interface: fc2/1, VSAN: 1, FCID: 0x1c0000, State: Up

Interface: fc2/2, VSAN: 1, FCID: 0x040000, State: Up

Interface: fc2/3, VSAN: 1, FCID: 0x260000, State: Up

Interface: fc2/4, VSAN: 1, FCID: 0x1a0000, State: Up

Number of External Interfaces: 4

Server Interfaces:

==================

Interface: vfc3/1, VSAN: 1, NPIV: No, State: Up

Number of Server Interfaces: 1

Verifying NPV Traffic Management

You are Welcome :)

Source: www.cisco.com