Npv Cfs Distribution Over Ip; Npv Traffic Management; Auto; Traffic Map - Cisco MDS 9000 Series Configuration Manual

Configuring N Port Virtualization

NPV CFS Distribution over IP

NPV devices use only IP as the transport medium. CFS uses multicast forwarding for CFS distribution. NPV
devices do not have ISL connectivity and FC domain. To use CFS over IP, multicast forwarding has to be
enabled on the Ethernet IP switches all along the network that physically connects the NPV switch. You can
also manually configure the static IP peers for CFS distribution over IP on NPV-enabled switches. For more
information, see the

NPV Traffic Management

Auto

Before Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 3.3(1a), NPV supported automatic selection of external links. When a
server interface is brought up, an external interface with the minimum load is selected from the available
links. There is no manual selection on the server interfaces using the external links. Also, when a new external
interface was brought up, the existing load was not distributed automatically to the newly available external
interface. This newly brought up interface is used only by the server interfaces that come up after this interface.

Traffic Map

As in Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 3.3(1a) and NX-OS Release 4.1(1a), NPV supports traffic management
by allowing you to select and configure the external interfaces that the server uses to connect to the core
switches.
Note When the NPV traffic management is configured, the server uses only the configured external interfaces. Any
other available external interface will not be used.
The NPV traffic management feature provides the following benefits:
• Facilitates traffic engineering by providing dedicated external interfaces for the servers connected to
• Uses the shortest path by selecting external interfaces per server interface.
• Uses the persistent FC ID feature by providing the same traffic path after a link break, or reboot of the
• Balances the load by allowing the user to evenly distribute the load across external interfaces.

Disruptive

Disruptive load balance works independent of automatic selection of interfaces and a configured traffic map
of external interfaces. This feature forces reinitialization of the server interfaces to achieve load balance when
this feature is enabled and whenever a new external interface comes up. To avoid flapping the server interfaces
too often, enable this feature once and then disable it whenever the needed load balance is achieved.
If disruptive load balance is not enabled, you need to manually flap the server interface to move some of the
load to a new external interface.
Cisco MDS 9000 Series NX-OS System Management Configuration
NPV.
NPV or core switch.
Cisco MDS 9000 Series Interfaces Configuration Guide, Release 8.x
NPV CFS Distribution over IP
Guide.
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