NPIV and the IBM Virtual I/O Server (VIOS)

NPIV Overview
► N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) is a fibre channel industry standard
method for virtualizing a physical fibre channel port.

► NPIV allows one F_Port to be associated with multiple N_Port IDs,
so a physical fibre channel HBA can be shared across multiple guest
operating systems in a virtual environment.

► On POWER, NPIV allows logical partitions (LPARs) to have
dedicated N_Port IDs, giving the OS a unique identity to the SAN,
just as if it had a dedicated physical HBA(s).


http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/download/attachments/53871900/NPIV+-+VUG+12-18-2008.pdf