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3–Configuration
Monitoring NPIV Virtual Ports from SANsurfer
3-10 FC0054607-00 A
VMware ESX/ESXi 4.0 enables NPIV support on QLogic 4Gb/8Gb Fibre Channel
Adapters and QLE8000 Series Converged Network Adapters. No additional
software or hardware installation is required to support NPIV. Note that VMware
ESX/ESXi 4.0 supports NPIV only on RDM (Raw Device Mapping) devices.
To configure NPIV, the Fibre Channel-FCoE switch port must be configured to
enable NPIV. The specific procedure to enable NPIV on the switch port depends
on the switch itself. For details, refer to the Fibre Channel-FCoE switch
documentation.
For more detailed NPIV information, refer to the following documents available
from VMware:
Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_san_cfg.pdf
VMware Configuring and Troubleshooting N-Port ID Virtualization technical
note
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35_25_npiv_config.pdf
(information is also
applicable to ESX 4.0)
Monitoring NPIV Virtual Ports from SANsurfer
QLogic’s SANsurfer management tools also support the NPIV functionality in the
drivers. SANsurfer FC HBA Manager (GUI) and SANsurfer FC HBA CLI
(command line interface) both display the virtual ports configured on the system.
SANsurfer management tools also provide additional information on the virtual
ports, including diagnostics and monitoring information.
SANsurfer generates events and notifies the user of any change (such as virtual
port creation and deletion) at the backend to the virtual ports.
Figure 3-4 shows a typical virtual environment in SANsurfer FC HBA Manager
with physical and virtual ports. The proc node provides information on the number
of virtual ports and their individual states, as well as the target devices with which
they can communicate (see also “Using Console OS” on page 3-2).