Using Emulex switches with Apple Fibre Cards and Fibre-attached storage

When using Emulex fibre switches in a Storage Area Network (SAN) topology such as an Xsan deployment, or in a Network Area Storage (NAS) deployment, you may need to modify the port settings to ensure constant communication between devices on the fibre network.

The Smart Settings for each port on Emulex 355 and 375 fiber switches reflect the role that the machine attached to the port will provide in the fabric topology. The Smart Setting varies according to whether the port will connect to a host or a storage device.

For ports that will be connected to a host computer, such as an Xserve or a Power Mac G5, the port's Smart Setting should be set to "Initiator with Stealth." This setting prevents host devices from receiving Loop Initialization Primitive Sequence (LIPs) messages from other Initiators. See Using Fibre Channel switches and hubs with Apple Fibre products for more information about LIPs.

1. Using Mozilla on a computer running Mac OS X, connect to the Emulex Switch and click the Login button.
2. Authenticate with the administrator password when prompted. (The default password is “password”.)
3. From the Port menu, choose Smart Settings.
4. Select "Initiator with Stealth“ from the list of Smart Settings sets, then click the Clone button.
5. Name the new Smart Settings set. (Do not use spaces in the name.)
6. Select the new set from the list of Smart Settings sets. Check each port number that will be connected to a host machine.
7. Click Change Notifications to expand the view.
8. Change the ”Stealth Intelligent Change Manager“ setting to ”Initiator: Only Receive Changes“.
9. Click the Submit button.

For ports that will be connected to a storage device, the Smart Setting should be set to "Target with Stealth." This setting allows storage devices to inform hosts that it has entered the network.

1. Using Mozilla on a Mac OS X-based computer, connect to the Emulex Switch and click the Login button.
2. Authenticate with the administrator password when prompted. (The default password is “password”.)
3. Choose Port > Smart Settings.
4. Select "Target with Stealth" from the list of Smart Settings sets, and click the Clone button.
5. Name the new Smart Settings set. (Do not use spaces in the name.)
6. Select the new set from the list of Smart Settings sets. Check each port number that will be connected to a storage device.
7. Click Change Notifications to expand the view.
8. Change the "Stealth Intelligent Change Manager" setting to "Target: Only Send Changes".
9. Click the Submit button.

Learn how to configure Emulex Switches in a cascade topology here. For instructions regarding how to change Smart Settings, please reference the Emulex product manual that is specific to your switch model. You can download Emulex switch manuals here.

Tip: Pre-configured switch configuration files can be downloaded from Emulex' website.

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