Configure Physical/Virtual Ports

Use this screen to configure the Network and Fault Domains of Physical Ports on the Storage Center. Physical Ports must be configured before you can map volumes to Servers.

For each Physical Port, indicate whether the port is Front End (connected to Servers) or Back End (connected to disk enclosures).

Identify the Fault Domain for each Front End Physical Port. By default, a single Virtual Port resides on each Front End Physical Port. If a port or controller fails, Storage Center moves the Virtual Port to another Physical Port within the Fault Domain. By definition, Physical Ports cannot be moved. Because volumes are mapped to servers via Virtual Ports, failover of a Virtual Port to a second Physical Port ensures the integrity of data via the Fault Domain.

A Preferred Physical Port identifies the primary location of a Virtual Port. If a Virtual Port is connected to a Physical Port that is not its Preferred Physical Port, the Physical Port is designated Not Preferred and the Storage Center Controllers are considered Unbalanced. For Virtual Ports, issuing a Rebalance Local Port Command returns each Virtual Port to its Preferred Physical Port location.

A Control Port is created for each iSCSI Fault Domain. iSCSI Servers connect to the Compellent Storage Center via the Control Port. The Control Port redirects the connection to the appropriate Virtual Port.

To create, modify, or delete Fault Domains from the system, click Edit Fault Domains.
To modify Virtual Ports, click Edit Virtual Ports.
To identify the slot number of the Physical Ports IO card, use the controller diagram at the bottom of the screen. Port numbers on IO Cards are numbered from 1 (top) to 4 (bottom).

Initiator, Target, and Both columns display the number of remote ports with the respective roles attached to the local port. Initiators are typically servers on the Front End. Targets are typically storage enclosures (such as disks) on the Back End. Storage Systems are typically Both.