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Fabric OS 5.0.0 procedures user guide 203
AConfiguring the PID format
This appendix contains the following sections:
• About PIDs and PID binding, page 203
• Summary of PID formats, page 204
• Impact of changing the fabric PID format, page 204
• Selecting a PID format, page 206
• Evaluating the fabric, page 207
• Planning the update procedure, page 209
• Changing to core PID format, page 211
• Changing to extended edge PID format, page 212
• Performing PID format changes, page 213
• Swapping port area IDs, page 217
Port identifiers (called PIDs) are used by the routing and zoning services in Fibre Channel fabrics to
identify ports in the network. All devices in a fabric must use the same PID format, so when you add new
equipment to your SAN, you may need to change the PID format on legacy equipment.
About PIDs and PID binding
The PID is a 24-bit address built from three 8-bit fields:
• domain
• area_ID
• AL_PA
Many scenarios cause a device to receive a new PID; for example, unplugging the device from one port
and plugging it into a different port as part of fabric maintenance, or changing the domain ID of a
switch, which may be necessary when merging fabrics, or changing compatibility mode settings.
Some device drivers use the PID to map logical disk drives to physical Fibre Channel counterparts. Most
drivers can either change PID mappings dynamically (called dynamic PID binding) or use the WWN of
the Fibre Channel disk for mapping (called WWN binding).
Some older device drivers behave as if a PID uniquely identifies a device (they use static PID binding).
These device drivers should be updated, if possible, to use WWN or dynamic PID binding instead,
because static PID binding creates problems in many routine maintenance scenarios. Fortunately, very
few device drivers still behave this way. Many current device drivers enable you to select static PID
binding as well as WWN binding. You should only select static binding if there is a compelling reason,
and only after you have evaluated the impact of doing so.