Configuring Overlay VSANs

VSANs enable deployment of larger SANs by overlaying multiple logical SANs, each running its own instance of fabric services, on a single large physical network. This partitioning of fabric services reduces network instability by containing fabric reconfiguration and error conditions within an individual VSAN. VSANs also provide the same isolation between individual VSANs as physically separated SANs. Traffic cannot cross VSAN boundaries and devices may not reside in more than one VSAN. Because each VSAN runs separate instances of fabric services, each VSAN has its own zone server and can be zoned in exactly the same way as SANs without VSAN capability.

To configure an overlay VSAN, follow these steps:

To configure the management interface displayed in

, set the default gateway to an IP address on the Ethernet network.

  1. Add the VSAN to the VSAN database on all switch in the fabric.
  2. Create a VSAN interface for the VSAN on all switches in the fabric. Any VSAN interface belonging to the VSAN has an IP address in the same subnet. Create a route to the IPFC cloud on the IP side
  3. Configure a default route on every switch in the Fibre Channel fabric pointing to the switch that provides NMS access.
  4. Configure default gateway (route) and the IP address on switches that point to the NMS.

    Overlay VSAN Configuration Example

     Overlay VSAN Configuration Example