Creating a Logical Port

This section describes how to create a logical port.

Precautions

It is recommended that you create no more than 64 logical ports for each controller. If more than 64 logical ports are created for one controller, the logical ports will fail over to a few available physical ports in the event that a large number of physical ports fail, decreasing service performance.

Procedure

  1. Choose Services > Network > Logical Ports.
  2. Click Create.

    The Create Logical Port page is displayed on the right.

  3. Set the parameters listed in Table 1.

    Table 1 Logical port parameters

    Parameter

    Description

    Name

    Name of the logical port.

    The name must meet the following requirements:

    • The name must be unique.
    • The name can contain only letters, digits, underscores (_), hyphens (-), and periods (.).
    • The name contains 1 to 255 characters.

    Role

    Role of the logical port. Possible values are:

    Service: A port of this role is used to access services, such as accessing CIFS shares of file systems.

    Replication: A port of this role is used for connections of the replication links in remote replication.

    Data Protocol

    Data protocol of the logical port. Possible values are NFS, CIFS, NFS + CIFS, iSCSI, and NVMe over RoCE.

    NOTE:
    • NFS, CIFS, and NFS + CIFS are applicable to file service configuration. iSCSI and NVMe over RoCE are applicable to block service configuration.
    • This parameter is available only when Role is set to Service.

    Owning vStore

    vStore to which the logical port belongs.

    NOTE:

    This parameter is available only when Role is set to Service and Data Protocol is set to NFS, CIFS, or NFS + CIFS.

    IP Address Type

    IP address type of the logical port, which can be IPv4 or IPv6.

    IP Address

    IPv4 or IPv6 address of the logical port.

    Subnet Mask

    Subnet mask of the logical port's IPv4 address.

    NOTE:

    This parameter is available only when IP Address Type is set to IPv4.

    Prefix

    Prefix length of the logical port's IPv6 address.

    NOTE:

    This parameter is available only when IP Address Type is set to IPv6.

    Gateway

    Gateway of the logical port's IP address.

    Port Type

    Type of the logical port (including the Ethernet port, bond port, and VLAN port).

    NOTE:

    This parameter can be specified only when Data Protocol is set to NFS, CIFS, NFS + CIFS, or iSCSI.

    Home Port

    Ethernet port, bond port, or VLAN to which the logical port belongs.

    Activation Status

    Determine whether to activate the logical port.

    NOTE:

    This parameter is available only when Data Protocol is set to NFS, CIFS, or NFS + CIFS.

  4. When Role is set to Service, select Advanced in the upper right corner and set the advanced attributes of the logical port.

    If Role is set to Service, you can set advanced attributes only when Data Protocol is set to NFS, CIFS, or NFS + CIFS.

    Table 2 describes the parameters.

    Table 2 Advanced logical port parameters

    Parameter

    Description

    Failover Group

    Name of a failover group.

    NOTE:
    • This parameter is available only when Data Protocol is set to NFS, CIFS, or NFS + CIFS.
    • If a failover group is specified, services on the failed home port will be taken over by an available port in the specified failover group.
    • If no failover group is specified, services on the failed home port will be taken over by an available port in the default failover group.
    • It is recommended that the logical ports of the same vStore use the same failover group. This ensures that the fault domains of the logical ports are the same.

    IP Address Failover

    After IP address failover is enabled, services on the failed home port will be taken over by an available port in a failover group. In the entire process, the IP address used by the services remains unchanged.

    NOTE:
    • This parameter is available only when Data Protocol is set to NFS, CIFS, or NFS + CIFS.
    • Shares of file systems do not support the multipathing mode. They use IP address failover to improve the reliability of links.

    Failback Mode

    After the fault of the home port is rectified, services fail back to the home port. Possible values are Automatic and Manual.

    NOTE:
    • This parameter is available only when Data Protocol is set to NFS, CIFS, or NFS + CIFS.
    • If Failback Mode is Manual, ensure that the link to the home port is normal before the failback. Services will manually fail back to the home port only when the link to the home port keeps normal for over five minutes.
    • If Failback Mode is Automatic, ensure that the link to the home port is normal before the failback. Services will automatically fail back to the home port only when the link to the home port keeps normal for over five minutes.

    Listen for DNS Query

    With this function enabled, external NEs can access the DNS service provided by the storage system by using the IP address of this logical port.

    NOTE:

    This parameter is available only when Data Protocol is set to NFS, CIFS, or NFS + CIFS.

    DNS Zone

    Name of a DNS zone.

    NOTE:
    • This parameter is available only when Data Protocol is set to NFS, CIFS, or NFS + CIFS.
    • If the value is blank, the logical port is not used for DNS-based load balancing.
    • One logical port can be associated with only one DNS zone. One DNS zone can be associated with multiple logical ports.
    • It is recommended that Listen for DNS Query be enabled for at least one logical port of each DNS zone.
    • A DNS zone can be associated with both IPv4 and IPv6 logical ports.
    • The load balancing effect varies with the distribution of logical ports associated with a DNS zone. To obtain a better load balancing effect, ensure that logical ports associated with a DNS zone are evenly distributed among controllers.

  5. Click OK.
Parent topic: Managing Logical Ports