About NPV

N-Port virtualization (NPV) reduces the number of Fibre Channel domain IDs in SANs. Switches operating in the NPV mode do not join a fabric; rather, they pass traffic between NPV core switch links and end-devices, which eliminates the domain IDs for these edge switches.

Typically, Fibre Channel networks are deployed using a core-edge model with a large number of Fabric switches connected to edge devices. Such a model is cost-effective because the per port cost for director class switches is much higher than that of Fabric switches. However, as the number of ports in the Fabric increases, the number of switches deployed also increases, and you can end up with a dramatic increase in the number of domain IDs (the maximum number supported is 239). This challenge becomes even more difficult when additional blade chassis are deployed in Fibre Channel networks.

NPV addresses the increase in the number of domain IDs needed to deploy a large number of the ports by making a Fabric or Blade switch appear as a host to the core Fibre Channel switch, and as a Fibre Channel switch to the servers in the Fabric or Blade switch. NPV aggregates multiple locally-connected N-ports into one or more external NP links, thereby sharing the domain ID of the NPV core switch among multiple NPV switches. NPV also allows multiple devices to attach to same port on the NPV core switch, thereby reducing the need for more ports on the core.



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