Port expander for fibre channel fabrics in storage area networks

摘要

An port expander Fibre Channel switch presents F_ports to form a first Fibre Channel fabric and N_ports to a second Fibre Channel fabric to appear as node devices. The port expander may be used to connect a plurality of blade servers to a Fibre Channel fabric. Fabric events engendered by the insertion or removal of hot-pluggable devices are handled by the port expander and “event storms” on the Fibre Channel fabric are avoided. The port expander presents the blade servers to the FC fabric as a virtualized N_port.