Cisco Systems DSC9148D8G48PK9 NPV Traffic Management Guidelines, Dpvm Configuration Guidelines

Chapter 7 Configuring N Port Virtualization

Guidelines and Limitations

•NPV devices can connect to multiple NPV core switches. In other words, different NP ports can be connected to different NPV core switches.

•NPV supports NPIV-capable module servers (nested NPIV).

•Only F, NP, and SD ports are supported in NPV mode.

•In the case of servers that are booted over the SAN with NPV, if an NPV link failover occurs, servers will lose access to their boot LUN temporarily.

•NPV switches do not recognize the BB_SCN configuration on the xNP ports because of interoperability issues with the third-party core switches.

NPV Traffic Management Guidelines

When deploying NPV traffic management, follow these guidelines:

•Use NPV traffic management only when the automatic traffic engineering by the NPV device is not sufficient for the network requirements.

•Do not configure traffic maps for all the servers. For non-configured servers, NPV will use automatic traffic engineering.

•Configure the Persistent FC ID on the core switch. Traffic engineering directs the associated server interface to external interfaces that lead to the same core switch. The server will be assigned the same FC ID for every log in. This guideline is not applicable if a 91x4 switch is used as the core switch.

•Server interfaces configured to a set of external interfaces cannot use any other available external interfaces, even if the configured interfaces are not available.

•Do not configure disruptive load balancing because this involves moving a device from one external interface to another interface. Moving the device between external interfaces requires NPV relogin to the core switch through F port leading to traffic disruption.

•Link a set of servers to a core switch by configuring the server to a set of external interfaces that are linked to the core switch.

DPVM Configuration Guidelines

When NPV is enabled, the following requirements must be met before you configure DPVM on the NPV core switch:

•You must explicitly configure the WWN of the internal FLOGI in DPVM. If DPVM is configured on the NPV core switch for an end device that is connected to the NPV device, then that end device must be configured to be in the same VSAN. Logins from a device connected to an NPV device will fail if the device is configured to be in a different VSAN. To avoid VSAN mismatches, ensure that the internal FLOGI VSAN matches the port VSAN of the NP port.

•The first login from an NP port determines the VSAN of that port. If DPVM is configured for this first login, which is the internal login of the NPV device, then the NPV core switch’s VSAN F port is located in that VSAN. Otherwise, the port VSAN remains unchanged.

For details about DPVM configuration, see the Cisco MDS 9000 Family NX-OS Fabric Configuration Guide.

	Cisco MDS 9000 Family NX-OS Interfaces Configuration Guide
OL-29284-01, Release 6.x		7-9