HP Brocade 8/12c Brocade Access Gateway Administrator's Guide v6.2.0 (53-10011 - Page 22
Access Gateway port types, Comparison of Access Gateway ports to standard switch ports - port switch
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1 Access Gateway port types Access Gateway port types Access Gateway differs from a typical fabric switch because it is not a switch; instead, it is a mode that you enable on a switch using the ag command. After a switch is set in ag mode, it can connect to the fabric using node ports (N_Ports). Typically fabric switches connect to the Enterprise fabric using ISL (InterSwitch Link) ports, such as E_Ports. Following are the Fibre Channel (FC) ports that AG uses: • F_Port - fabric port that connects a host, HBA, or storage device to a switch in AG mode. • N_Port - node port that connects a switch in AG mode to the F_Port of the fabric switch. Comparison of Access Gateway ports to standard switch ports Access Gateway multiplexes host connections to the fabric. It presents an F_Port to the host and an N_Port to an Edge fabric switch. Using N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV), AG allows multiple FC initiators to access the SAN on the same physical port. This reduces the hardware requirements and management overhead of hosts to the SAN connections. A fabric switch presents F_Ports (or FL_Ports) and storage devices to the host and presents E_Ports, VE_Ports, or EX_Ports to other switches in the fabric. A fabric switch consumes SAN resources, such as domain IDs, and participates in fabric management and zoning distribution. A fabric switch requires more physical ports than AG to connect the same number of hosts. Figure 2 shows a comparison of the types of ports a switch in AG mode uses to the type of ports that a standard fabric switch uses. Hosts N_Port N_Port Access Gateway Ports Switch in AG mode F_Port F_Port N_Port Edge Switch F_Port NPIV enabled Fabric Hosts N_Port N_Port Fabric Switch Ports Switch in standard default mode Fabric Fabric Switch F_Port E_Port E_Port F_Port E_Port E_Port FIGURE 2 Port usage comparison 4 Access Gateway Administrator's Guide 53-1001189-01