Brocade Communications Systems 53-1003126-02 Device mapping

Consider the following when using F_Port Static Mapping with Access Gateway features and policies:

• F_Port Static Mapping functions with cascaded Access Gateway configurations.

• Failover, failback, and preferred secondary N_Port settings are disabled for F_Ports that are statically

mapped.

• Statically mapped ports are blocked from using the Automatic Port Configuration (APC) and

Advanced Device Security (ADS) policies. You cannot enable the APC policy until all static mappings

are deleted using the ag --staticdel command.

• F_Port Static Mapping works with the Port Grouping (PG) policy with some modifications to policy

behavior. If static mapping is applied to an F_Port already mapped to an N_Port, the F_Port will lose

its mapping to the N_Port applied through the Port Grouping policy. Therefore, the F_Port will not

have the failover, failback, or preferred N_Port settings that other F_Ports have when mapped to an

N_Port in that port group. To remap to an N_Port with PG policy attributes, use the ag --staticdel

command to remove the static mapping, and then remap to another N_Port using the ag --mapadd

command.

• F_Port Static Mapping will not work with Device Load Balancing. Because F_Port Static Mapping

forces the F_Port to stick with a specific N_Port, NPIV devices that log in to the F_Port cannot

redistribute themselves among N_Ports in the port group.

• F_Port Static Mapping will not work with port trunking. If an F_Port is statically mapped to an N_Port

and trunking is enabled, the F_Port goes offline. If port trunking is enabled for an F_Port already, you

will be blocked from configuring static mapping for the F_Port.

• All static mappings will be maintained when upgrading to the latest Fabric OS version.

• When downgrading, you must remove all static mappings or downgrade will not be allowed.

Device mapping

Device mapping allows you to map individual N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) devices to N_Ports. By

mapping device WWNs directly to an N_Port group (recommended) or specific N_Ports, traffic from the

device will always go to the same N_Port or N_Port group, regardless of the F_Port where the device

logs in. When the Port Grouping and Device Load Balancing policies are enabled for a port group,

WWNs mapped to that port group are automatically balanced among the online N_Ports in that group

(refer to Port Grouping policy modes on page 59).

NOTE

Port Grouping policy is not supported when both Automatic Login Balancing and Device Load Balancing

are enabled.

Device mapping does not affect or replace the traditional port mapping. Device mapping is an optional

mapping that will exist on top of existing port mapping. In general, mapping devices to N_Port groups is

recommended over mapping devices to individual N_Ports within a port group. This ensures maximum

device "up-time," especially during failover conditions and system power up. This is especially true

when a reasonably large number of devices must connect to the same fabric through a single port

group.

The following aspects of device mapping are important to note:

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