HP StorageWorks Fabric OS 6.x administrator guide (5697-7344, March 2008)

Fabric OS 6.x administrator guide 421

FCIP concepts

Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) enables you to connect Fibre Channel SANs over IP-based networks. 400

Multi-protocol Router and FR4-18i blades use FCIP to encapsulate Fibre Channel frames within IP frames

that can be sent over an IP network to a partner 400 Multi-protocol Router or FR4-18i blade. When the IP

packets are received, the Fibre Channel frames are reconstructed. The Fibre Channel fabric and all Fibre

Channel targets and initiators are unaware of the presence of the IP network.

Virtual ports and FCIP tunnels

Each FR4-18i and 400 Multi-protocol Router platform presents sixteen FC ports and sixteen virtual ports.

Each GbE interface can support up to 8 FCIP Tunnels which are represented as 8 Virtual ports on ge0 and

8 virtual ports on ge1. The mapping of Tunnels on ge0 and ge1 to virtual port numbers are represented in

Table 93.

Virtual port types

Virtual ports may be defined as VE_Ports or VEX_Ports.

VE_Ports

VE_Ports (virtual E_Ports) are used to create interswitch links (ISLs) through an FCIP tunnel. If VE_Ports

are used on both ends of an FCIP tunnel, the fabrics connected by the tunnel are merged.

VEX_Port

A VEX_Port enables FC-FC Routing Service functionality over an FCIP tunnel. VEX_Ports enable

interfabric links (IFLs). if a VEX_Port on one end of an FCIP tunnel, the fabrics connected by the tunnel

are not merged. The other end of the tunnel must be defined as a VE_Port. VEX_Ports are not used in

pairs.

Figure 39 illustrates a portion of a Fibre Channel network that uses FCIP ISLs (VE_Ports connected over the

IP WAN network) to join the office and data center SANs into a single larger SAN.

Table 93 Tunnel and virtual port numbering

GbE port Tunnels Virtual ports

ge0 0

ge1 0