Cisco APIC Layer 2 Networking Configuration Guide, Release 6.2(x)

Fibre Channel connectivity in N-Port Virtualization mode

Updated: July 7, 2026

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Fibre Channel (FC) connectivity in N-Port Virtualization (NPV) mode is a method for aggregating FC traffic from locally connected host ports into a node proxy (NP port) uplink to a core switch.

This configuration applies to an entire switch after you enable NPV. When you enable NPV, the switch requires each end device to log in as an N port and establishes links from edge switches to core switches as NP ports.

Applies to an entire switch after enabling NPV.
Requires each end device to log in as an N port.
Establishes links from edge switches to core switches as NP ports.

FC NPV benefits and topology

FC NPV provides the following benefits:

Increases the number of hosts that connect to the fabric without adding domain IDs in the fabric.
Allows FC and FCoE hosts to connect to SAN fabrics using native FC interfaces.
Provides automatic traffic mapping for load balancing.
Supports static traffic mapping for servers connected to NPV.

The following list details the topology and configuration capabilities for FC traffic over the ACI fabric:

Server/storage host interfaces on the ACI leaf switch can be configured as native FC ports or virtual FC (FCoE) ports.
Uplink interfaces to a FC core switch support native FC NP ports or SAN-PO NP ports.
Uplink interfaces to a FCF switch support virtual (vFC) NP ports or vFC-PO NP ports.
N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) is enabled by default.
Trunking can be enabled on an NP port to support multiple VSANs.
Multiple FC NP ports can be combined as a SAN port channel (SAN-PO).
FC F ports support 4/16/32 Gbps; FC NP ports support 4/8/16/32 Gbps.
Multiple FDISC followed by Flogi is supported.
FCoE hosts behind a FEX are supported over FCoE NP/uplinks and Fibre Channel NP/uplinks.
SAN boot is supported on a FEX through FCoE NP/uplinks, FC/SAN-PO uplinks, and over vPC.

Note

In the FC NPV application, the ACI leaf switch provides a path for FC traffic between locally connected SAN hosts and a core switch. The leaf switch does not perform local switching between SAN hosts, and FC traffic is not forwarded to a spine switch.

FC NPV Mode Configuration

The feature-set fcoe-npv in ACI is enabled automatically by default when the first FCoE/FC configuration is pushed.

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