Recently, I was asked how to enable N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) for our high-performance Emulex OneConnect 10Gb Universal Converged Network Adapters (UCNAs) configured for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Searching through the Emulex documentation pages as the requester did, I was also unable to locate any information on this configuration. I didn’t think this could be any more difficult than configuring Fibre Channel, so I thought I’d take a stab at it. A Microsoft Windows Server 2008 host was used with an Emulex OneConnect OCe10102 adapter, with Emulex OneCommand Manager 5.2.12.1 and 5.2.12.2 for one FCoE port. Since our adapters have two ports, you would perform the steps below for the second port.
Here we go:
- Open OneCommand Manager and select “View” from the drop down menus and select “Group” by adapters
- Select the FCoE port
- Select the Driver Parameters tab
- From the Adapter Parameter, left mouse click once to select Enable NPIV
- Select “Enable” from the Modify Adapter Parameter. This will make the Adapter Parameter turn red, requiring a reboot. Because it will only enable one port, a reboot will also be required for the second port.
- Select “Apply” and reboot the server
- When the server comes back up, login to your Windows server and open OneCommand Manager
- Select “View” then “Group Adapters by Virtual Port”
- Select the FCoE port and you should now be able to create your virtual ports
- Select “Create Virtual Port” and a new virtual port confirmation window will appear
- As shown in the image below, the new virtual port will appear just below the physical port
I hope this helps. If you still have questions, please contact Emulex technical support.
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