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Host connectivity
17
Introduction
◆ In virtualization environments, where several physical storage
and network links are commonly required.
The installation of the QLogic FCoE CNA provides the host with an
Intel-based 10 gigabit Ethernet interface (using the existing in-box
drivers), and an QLogic Fibre Channel adapter interface, which
requires the installation of the supported driver revision.
Following installation of the proper driver for the FCoE CNA, the
Fibre Channel interface will function identically to that of a standard
QLogic Fibre Channel HBA, as the FCoE simply encapsulates Fibre
Channel traffic within ethernet frames. As such, FC-based content
within this document also applies directly to the QLogic FCoE CNAs.
In-depth information about FCoE and its supported features and
topologies can be found in the Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
TechBook available through the E-Lab Interoperability Navigator,
Topology Resource Center tab, at http://elabnavigator.EMC.com.
iSCSI
The iSCSI HBA provides PCI connectivity to SCSI using the iSCSI
protocol. iSCSI enables the use of IP-based SANs, which are similar to
Fibre Channel SANs. The QLA40xx-Series HBA implements the
TCP/IP and iSCSI protocols on the HBA and offloads the host of any
I/O protocol processing. This type of adapter is also referred to by
QLogic as an iSCSI Offload Engine (iSOE). Offloading the host frees
the system to perform other tasks and optimizes system performance.
The QLogic iSCSI HBA driver functions as a device driver layer
below the standard Linux SCSI adapter driver. The iSCSI interface,
therefore, is transparent to the Linux disk administration system.