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EMC Host Connectivity with QLogic FC and iSCSI HBAs and FCoE CNAs for the Linux Environment
Introduction
Purpose of this document
This document is meant to assist in the installation and configuration
of QLogic Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs) and Fibre
Channel Over Ethernet (FCoE) converged network adapters (CNAs),
and iSCSI HBAs in Linux environments. The focus of this document
is to enable the integrated QLogic driver in the Linux distributions
for EMC
®
-supported QLogic adapters or Fibre Channel adapters or
to set up Linux hosts using the EMC-supported driver for QLogic
adapters, available from the EMC-approved section of the QLogic
website.
Host connectivity
Review the EMC Support Matrix or contact your EMC
representative
for the latest information on qualified adapters, drivers, and Linux
distributions.
Note: EMC does not support mixing different types of Fibre Channel adapter
(including different types from the same vendor) in a server.
Fibre Channel
The Fibre Channel adapter driver functions as a device driver layer
below the standard Linux SCSI adapter driver. The Fibre Channel
interface therefore is transparent to the Linux disk administration
system.
Fibre Channel over Ethernet
EMC supports the QLogic Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Converged Network Adapter (CNA). FCoE adapters provide a
method to converge both Fibre Channel and Ethernet traffic over a
single physical link to a switch infrastructure which manages both
storage (SAN) and network (IP) connectivity within a single unit.
The benefits of FCoE technology become apparent in large data
centers:
◆ Where dense, rack-mounted and blade server chassis exist.
◆ Where physical cable topology simplification is a priority.
