Planning connectivity between the FC initiator ports on ONTAP systems and storage array ports includes determining how to achieve redundancy and meeting requirements for the number of paths to an array LUN.
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Requirements for using FC initiator ports
If you want to use FC initiator ports in an ONTAP configuration with array LUNs, you must follow specific requirements for port pair redundancy, port settings for HBAs, connecting to target ports, array LUN limits, and connecting to different storage and devices.
How FC initiator ports are labeled
All FC initiator ports on ONTAP systems are identified by a number and a letter. Labeling differs depending on whether the ports are on the motherboard or cards in expansion slots.
Configuring FC ports as initiators
You can configure individual FC ports as initiators on ONTAP systems. The initiator mode enables the ports to connect to storage arrays.
Rules for sharing an FC initiator port with multiple target ports
You can connect an FC initiator port on an ONTAP system to a maximum of four target ports on separate storage arrays. Sharing an FC initiator port with multiple targets is useful when you want to minimize the number of FC initiator ports used.
Example configuration: shared FC initiator ports
One FC initiator port on an ONTAP system can be connected to up to four target ports on separate storage arrays or, for some storage arrays, to four target ports on the same storage arrays.
Rules for sharing a target port with multiple FC initiator ports
Connecting a maximum of two ONTAP FC initiator ports to a single target port on the storage array is supported. Each target port is zoned into two FC initiator ports, one from each cluster node. Sharing a target port connected to ONTAP systems with any other host is not supported.
Requirements for connecting to storage arrays
When planning how to connect your ONTAP system to a storage array, your port-to-port connectivity plan must address redundancy, pathing, and other guidelines.
FC initiator ports required for connection to native disks
You must connect a V-Series system to native disk shelves through the FC initiator ports. The number of initiator ports required for the connection depends on whether the V-Series system is a stand-alone system or in an HA pair.
Example of non-optimized usage of a storage array target port
When the number of I/O requests queued on a given storage array target port exceeds the number of requests that the port can handle, it results in non-optimized usage of the target port.