Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switch Fabric Manager Software Configuration Guide, NX-OS 4.0 (OL-16598-01, June 2008)

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12-2
Nexus 5000 Series Switch Fabric Manager Software Configuration Guide
OL-16598-01
Chapter 12 Configuring N-Port Virtualization
Information About NPV
Figure 12-1 Cisco NPV Configuration–Interface View
Note In-order data delivery is not required in NPV mode because the exchange between two end devices
always takes the same uplink to the core from the NPV device. For traffic beyond the NPV device, core
switches will enforce in-order delivery if configured.
Switch operation in NPV mode is described in the following topics:
• NP Ports, page 12-2
• NP Links, page 12-2
• FLOGI Operation, page 12-2
NP Ports
An NP port (proxy N port) is a port on a switch that is in NPV mode and connected to the core NPV
switch through an F port. NP ports operate as N ports that function as proxies for multiple physical N
ports.
NP Links
An NP link is basically an NPIV uplink to a specific end device. NP links are established when the uplink
to the NPV core switch comes up; the links are terminated when the uplink goes down. Once the uplink
is established, the NPV switch performs an internal FLOGI to the NPV core switch, and then (if the
FLOGI is successful) registers itself with the NPV core switch’s name server. Subsequent FLOGIs from
end switches in this NP link are converted to FDISCs.
Server links are uniformly distributed across the NP links. All the end devices behind a server link will
be mapped to only one NP link.
FLOGI Operation
When an NP port comes up, the Nexus 5000 Series switch first logs itself in to the NPV core switch and
sends a FLOGI request that includes the following parameters:
• The fabric port WWN (fWWN) of the NP port used as the pWWN in the internal login.
• The VSAN-based switch WWN (sWWN) of the Nexus 5000 Series switch used as node WWN
(nWWN) in the internal FLOGI.
NPV Device
NPV Device
184631
Host
Host
NPV Core Switch
NPIV enable
F-Port
F-Port
N-Port
N-Port
F-Port
F-Port
NP-Port
NP-Port