Reference Guide

Upgrade considerations
The maximum logins per switch decreased with Fabric OS v6.4.0. When upgrading from a release previous to Fabric OS v6.4.0, the
configured maximum is carried forward and may exceed the Fabric OS v6.4.0 limit. It is recommended to reconfigure this parameter to
be within the range permitted in Fabric OS v6.4.0 and later.
Fixed addressing mode
Fixed addressing mode is the default addressing mode used in all platforms that do not have Virtual Fabrics enabled.
The number of NPIV devices supported on shared area ports (48-port blades) is reduced to 64 from 128 when Virtual Fabrics mode is
enabled.
10-bit addressing mode
The 10-bit addressing mode is the default mode for all the logical switches created in the Brocade DCX 8510, and X6 Backbones. The
number of NPIV supported on a port is 64.
In 10-bit addressing mode, the switch can dynamically assign up to 112, 8-bit areas, after that 10-bit areas are assigned. So the 8-bit
areas can have up to 255 devices, and 10-bit areas can have up to 63 devices.
The following table shows the number of NPIV devices supported on the Brocade DCX 8510, and X6 Backbones.
TABLE 85 Number of supported NPIV devices per port
Platform Virtual Fabrics Logical switch
type
NPIV support
DCX 8510-8 (or) X6-8 Disabled N/A Yes, 127 virtual device limit.
DCX 8510-8 (or) X6-8 Enabled Default switch Yes, 63 virtual device limit.
DCX 8510-8 (or) X6-8 Enabled Logical switch Yes, 255 virtual device limit.
The first 112 physical NPIV-capable devices connected to a logical switch using 10-
bit addressing can log in 255 logical devices. The physical NPIV-capable devices
after 112, 113, and higher, are limited to 63 logical devices. If port is assigned a 10-bit
area, the number of NPIV devices supported is 63.
DCX 8510-8 (or) X6-8 Enabled Base switch No.
DCX 8510-4 (or) X6-4 Disabled N/A Yes, 255 virtual device limit.
DCX 8510-4 (or) X6-4 Enabled Default switch Yes, 255 virtual device limit.
DCX 8510-4 (or) X6-4 Enabled Logical switch Yes, 255 virtual device limit.
If port is assigned a 10-bit area, the number of NPIV devices supported is 63.
DCX 8510-4 (or) X6-4 Enabled Base switch No.
Configuring NPIV
The NPIV feature is enabled by default. You can set the number of virtual N_Port IDs per port to a value from 1 through 255 per port.
The default setting is 126.
The portCfgNPIVPort command is used to specify the maximum number of virtual N_port IDs per port on a switch. It can also be used
to enable or disable NPIV. Once NPIV is enabled on the port, you can specify the number of logins per port. If the NPIV feature has been
disabled, then the NPIV port configuration does not work.
The addressing mode can limit the maximum number of NPIV logins to 127 or 63 depending on the mode. The portCfgNPIVPort
command can set the maximum number of NPIV logins limit to anything from 1 through 255, regardless of the addressing mode.
NPIV
Brocade Fabric OS Administration Guide, 8.0.1
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