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# About Fibre Channel networks

You can use Fibre Channel networks to connect to storage systems.

- Fibre Channel network types

- Fabric-attach Fibre Channel networks

- Direct-attach Fibre Channel networks

## Fibre Channel network types

The Virtual Connect interconnects in enclosures support the following types of Fibre Channel networks when connecting to storage systems:

- Fabric-attach networks—The enclosure interconnects connect to data center SAN fabric switches.

- Direct-attach networks—Also called Flat SAN, in which the enclosure interconnects connect directly to a supported storage system.

You cannot change the type of Fibre Channel network, but you can delete the network in HPE OneView, and then add the network as a different type.

A logical interconnect can be defined to use direct-attach storage and fabric-attach storage at the same time.

Direct-attach and fabric-attach Fibre Channel networks

## Fabric-attach Fibre Channel networks

SAN infrastructures typically use a Fibre Channel switching solution involving several SAN switches that implement NPIV (N-Port ID Virtualization) technology. NPIV uses N-ports and F-ports to build a Fibre Channel SAN fabric. NPIV enables multiple N_Ports to connect to a switch through a single F_Port, so that a server can share a single physical port with other servers, but access only its associated storage on the SAN.

When you configure a fabric-attach Fibre Channel network, the port you choose for the uplink from the enclosure interconnect to the storage SAN must support NPIV (N_Port ID Virtualization).

You can use Virtual Connect Fibre Channel modules to connect storage. The appliance manages up to six Virtual Connect Fibre Channel modules in bays 3 through 8 of an enclosure. Virtual Connect Fibre Channel modules are not supported in bay 1 and bay 2.

## Direct-attach Fibre Channel networks

The direct-attach Fibre Channel solution, also called the Flat SAN solution, eliminates the need for a connection from the enclosure interconnects to a Fibre Channel SAN switch. This means you can connect the enclosure interconnects directly to the 3PAR storage system. The direct-attach Fibre Channel solution is available for 3PAR storage solutions using FlexFabric interconnects.

Servers connecting to a direct-attach Fibre Channel network have access to all devices connected on the uplink ports defined for that network. If there is more than one connection from a FlexFabric module to the storage system, each server can access as many paths to the storage LUN (logical unit number) as there are connections to the 3PAR storage system.

For direct-attach Fibre Channel networks, the enclosure interconnect does not distribute server logins across uplink ports. Server login distribution does not apply to direct-attach Fibre Channel networks.

| IMPORTANT: If you do not use automated storage provisioning, you must manually update the boot connection when moving a server profile. When you move a server profile to a different enclosure and the profile is configured to boot from a direct-attach storage system, you must manually update the boot connection of the profile to specify the WWPN (World Wide Port Name) used for the storage system that is directly attached to the enclosure. Each enclosure connects to a different port of the direct-attach storage system, so the WWPN for that storage system is different for each enclosure. If you do not specify the correct WWPN and LUN for the storage system, the server will not boot successfully from the boot target.

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