HP-UX vPars 6.0 N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) - A brief overview

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Figure 1 shows two vPars, both with vHBAs.
Figure 1: NPIV presentation
Here, the VSP has a single physical Fibre Channel HBA with p-WWN as its WWN. Assume the LUNs D1-D6 exist
behind this physical Fibre Channel HBA.
Using the NPIV feature, two virtual Fibre Channel ports with WWNs v-WWN1 and v-WWN2 have been created
and assigned to vPars V1 and V2 respectively.
Using zoning on the Fibre Channel switch and LUN masking on the storage device, the LUNs D1 to D6 behind the
physical Fibre Channel HBA can be selectively presented to the vPars and the VSP. In this case, vPar V1 has access to
LUNs D3 and D4 while vPar V2 has access to LUNs D5 and D6. LUNs D1 and D2 are accessible to the VSP as well
as both of the virtual partitions.
The sections that follow describe the benefits, use cases and limitations of NPIV.
SAN
vPar
V2
NPIV HBA
v
-
WWN1
NPIV HBA
v
-
WWN2
FC HBA
P
-
WWN
v
-
WWN1
v
-
WWN2
vPar
V1
D1
D2
D3
D4
D5
D6
D1–D6: LUNs
Yellow:
vPar
V1
Green:
vPar
V2
Tri
-
color: VSP and
vPars