OpenSolaris

1. Project: NPort ID Virtualization (NPIV)
   1. Announcements
   2. Events
   3. News
   4. Blogs
   5. Discussions
   6. Leaders
   7. Observers
   8. Files
   9. NPIV January Beta Release Notes

OpenSolaris Project: NPort ID Virtualization (NPIV)

View the leaders for this project
Project Observers

Endorsing communities

Logical Domains
Storage

Introduction

N_Port_ID Virtualization (NPIV) is a method for virtualizing a FibreChannel Port. With NPIV, one physical FibreChannel port can obtain many N_Port_IDs.

Why is this useful? The reason most people mention is to map one virtual N_Port_ID to one guest operating system in a virtual environment. So, your Xen DOMU or Logical Domain DOMA can have its own N_Port_ID, just as if it were a physical HBA. With this N_Port_ID and the related port and node world wide name (PWWN/NWWN), storage administrators can use existing zoning and LUN masking techniques they've used in the past.

Background Reading

Solution Technology's Introduction

Storage Magazine

SNIA Storage Developer's Conference Video

SNIA Storage Developer's Conference Slides

FAST 08 Poster

Solaris Design Documents

Documents will be uploaded as developed

• The FCA interface is the interface between the FCA driver, and the fp and fctl drivers in the Leadville stack. This document describes changes in the interface.
• The one pager is a high level document used in Sun processes. Here is the NPIV one pager.
• PSARC Case materials. PSARC Inception review was November 14, 2007. This includes the functional specification with proposed interface changes.
• Configuring NPIV. This is an excerpt from the Solaris Express SAN Configuration and Multipathing Guide.