FC target ports
Page with the configuration of FC ports available in the system displays all FC ports along with virtual ports (NPIV) configured for a particular physical port. This view shows all FC ports WWNs that can be assigned to FC groups. FC, unlike iSCSI, requires the existing ports on a local machine to be assigned to groups in a pool. Virtual targets allow having more than one WWN on the same physical port in case more targets are needed.
A particular port can be in an initiator or a target mode. By default, the port is in the initiator mode. A port in this mode can be used in FC groups configuration, however the initiator won’t be able to connect to any LUN assigned to such port. It is necessary to switch the port into the target mode in order to give the initiator access to LUNs through a given port. Virtual targets share the port mode with a parent port. When a new virtual port is created it will use the same mode as the parent port. When the mode is changed on the parent port it is automatically modified for all virtual ports assigned to a modified physical port.
Each port displays its status in the system. It is either:
“OK” - meaning that port is available in the system or “Missing” - meaning that port is not present in the machine.
Ports with a missing status are configurations for ports that were previously present in the system but currently are not connected - e.g. when a physical adapter has been removed. Those configurations can be removed if they are no longer needed. However, if an adapter is plugged back later to the system, the configuration for a given port can be still useful. Once the port is back in the system and the configuration is present, it is used for this port as if it were never removed.
Removing the port is possible for missing port configurations and virtual ports. In both cases, if a port configuration is used by any FC group and the port is removed, it is also removed from any FC group it belongs to. It also applies to configurations of missing ports. Assignments of those configurations will be removed from any group where it was used. Removal of a missing port configuration that is assigned to a FC group is on a configuration level only and the physical state of FC ports is not modified.
Because the identification of ports by means of its WWNs may not be convenient, it is possible to assign a user friendly name to each port using alias. By default, alias is not defined by the system. A user can set it to any string that will allow an easier identification of a given port.