NPIV FAQs for PowerVM Vritual I/O Server Environment

1. What is NPIV?

N_Port ID Virtualization(NPIV) is a standardized method for virtualizing a physical fibre channel port. An NPIV-capable fibre channel HBA can have multiple N_Ports, each with a unique identity. NPIV coupled with the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) adapter sharing capabilities allow a physical fibre channel HBA to be shared across multiple guest operating systems. The PowerVM implementation of NPIV enables POWER logical partitions (LPARs) to have virtual fibre channel HBAs, each with a dedicated world wide port name (WWPN). Each virtual fibre channel HBA has a unique SAN identity similar to that of a dedicated physical HBA.


2. What are the minimum requirements for NPIV?

Hardware

• A POWER6-based System p server OR

Minimum system firmware levels

• EL340_039 for IBM Power 520 and 550
• EM340_036 for IBM Power 560 and 570
• One of the following JS blade types. Note: NPIV is only supported on the BladeCenter H
• JS12 (7998-60X)
• JS22 (7998-61X)
• JS23 (7778-23X)
• JS43 (7778-23X + FC8446)
• BladeCenter H (7989-BCH)
• Minimum one supported Fibre Channel adapter (see FAQ 3 & 4)
• NPIV-enabled SAN switch.
  Only the SAN switch which is attached to the Fibre Channel adapter in the VIOS needs to be NPIV-capable. Other switches in your SAN do not need to be NPIV-capable.

Switch levels

• Brocade v6.1.0 or later
• McData v9.7 or later
• Cisco v3.2 (3) or later

NPIV support	Only available on 8-GB Fibre Channel Adapters on Power6 systems. The Fibre Channel Switch needs to support NPIV, but does not need to be 8-GB. The 8-GB FCA can negotiate down to 2 and 4 GB.
Maximum number of virtual Fibre Channel (NPIV) adapters per physical Fibre Channel port	64 This is the "tports" value in lsnports output, where tports is the "Total Number of NPIV Ports the physical Fibre Channel Port can support. By default, it is set to the value of the ODM attribute max_npivs. If the max number of NPIVs has not been set (max_npivs=0), this number will be the minimum number of NPIV ports which can be supported based on the Number of Target WWPN's and default value 64.
Maximum number of virtual Fibre Channel (NPIV) adapters per client	Unlimited
Maximum number of WWPNs supported by the physical Fibre Channel port	2048
Maximum number of WWPN "pairs"	32,000 Once deleted, WWPN pairs are not reused. If you run out of WWPNs, you must obtain an activation code that includes another prefix with another 32,000 pairs of WWPNs.

• Virtual I/O Server 2.1.2 or higher
• AIX 5.3 TL 11 or higher (feature was introduced with IZ51404)
  • IZ33540 (5.3 TL 11)
  • IZ51404 (5.3 TL 12)
  • IZ33541 (6.1 TL 4)
  • IZ51405 (6.1 TL 5)

To unmap, ran vfcmap -vadapter vfchost0 -fcp
To remap, ran vfcmap -vadapter vfchost0 -fcp fcs1