Fabric Manager Users Guide, Version 6.1, Revision A - QLogic

4 Virtual Fabrics
Overview
Virtual Fabrics (vFabrics TM ) bring to InfiniBand many of the capabilities of Ethernet
VLANs and Fibre Channel Zoning.
Using vFabrics, the adminstrator may slice up the physical fabric into many
overlapping virtual fabrics. The adminstrator’s selections determine how the
InfiniBand-specific configuration of the fabric is performed.
The goal of vFabrics is to permit multiple applications to be run on the same fabric
at the same time with limited interference. The administrator can control the
degree of isolation.
As in the Ethernet VLANs, a given node may be in one or more vFabrics. vFabrics
may have overlapping or completely independent membership. When IPoIB is in a
fabric, typically each vFabric represents a unique IP subnet, in the same way a
unique subnet is assigned to different virtual LANs (VLANs).
Each vFabric can be assigned Quality of Service (QoS) policies to control how
common resources in the fabric are shared among vFabrics.
Additionally, as in the Fibre Channel Zoning, vFabrics can be used in an
InfiniBand fabric with shared I/O and InfiniBand storage. vFabrics help control and
reduce the number of storage targets visible to each host, making Plug and Play
host software and storage-management tools easier to use. Some typical usage
models for vFabrics include the following:
• Separating a cluster into multiple vFabrics so that independent applications
can run with minimal or no effect on each other
• Separating classes of traffic. For example, putting a storage controller in one
vFabric and a network controller in another, using one wire for all networking
becomes secure and predictable.
A vFabric consists of a group of applications that run on a group of devices. For
each vFabric the operational parameters of the vFabric can be selected.
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