Portsets

Portsets are groupings of logical addresses that are associated with the specific traffic types. The system supports portsets for host attachment, backend storage connectivity, and IP replication traffic.

Each physical Ethernet Port can have maximum 64 IP addresses with each IP on unique portset. However, for each port IP address can be shared between multiple unique portsets for different functions. Each port can bind to only single IP address per portset for specific Ethernet functions like host attachment (iSCSI or iSER), backend storage connectivity (iSCSI only), and IP replication. For cloud environments, each Ethernet port support two IP addresses and VLANs per port for multiple clients that share storage resources on the system.

A portset restricts a host to access only a specific set of IP addresses of a node. A host can access only those IP addresses that are configured on a portset and is mapped to that host. A portset object is a system-wide object and might contains IP addresses from every I/O group. To access multiple nodes in a system, a portset must be configured with the IP address of the nodes that the host wants to access. A portset can be of Host Attach, Remote Copy, and Storage type. The default portset is the Host type. A portset of a specific type can be used only for that function, for example, a host attach type portset cannot be used for remote copy partnership.

A cloud platform supports a maximum of two IP address per port. The system uses the same IP address if a port is going to be used for more than one purpose by sharing IP addresses

Each portset is identified by a unique name. The portset 0, portset 1, portset 2, and portset 3 are the default portsets configured when the system is created or updated. A portset can be created and managed by using the command-line interface and GUI. In the command-line interface, use the lsportset command to display the configured portsets. An administrator can do of the following actions on a portsets:

mkportset: The command creates a unique portset.
rmportset: The command removes a portset.
chportset: The command modifies portset attributes.

Requirements for portsets

In general, portsets have the following requirements:

Portsets are system-wide objects where IP addresses from all nodes might be included in the portset for host, storage, and replication functions.
Each IP address in a portset must be configured on a separate Ethernet port.
Same ports can share IP addresses across different portsets that allow the same IP address to be used for host, storage, and remote-copy traffic. All shared IP addresses must use the same port and have the same VLAN, gateway, and prefix. When IP addresses are shared among multiple portsets, the system creates a logical copy of the IP address and its attributes, rather than a new IP address.
Portsets that are owned by different ownership groups can share an IP address.
The system supports a maximum of 64 portsets.
A port can have 64 unique or shared IP addresses. All 64 IP addresses must be IPv4 or IPv6, or a mix of IPv4 and IPv6.
Each port can be configured with only one unique routable IP address (gateway specified). The routable IP can be shared among multiple portsets.
Portset 0 is a default portset that is automatically configured when the system is updated or created. Portset 0 is a host portset by default and cannot be deleted even if it is empty. Portset 0 serves as the default portset for any IP addresses and host objects that are configured without a portset specified. Portset 0 allows administrators to continue with an original configuration that does not require multi-tenancy. After an update, all configured host objects are automatically mapped to portset 0.

A portset can be defined to an ownership group. When you define an ownership group for portsets, you can limit and restrict users to view and manage only specific portsets. The Portset 0, Portset 3, and replication portset are always globally owned and only global administrators can assign and modify IP addresses to the portsets. For more information, see Ownership groups.

In a typical configuration, a portset object is first created and then the IP address object and host object are configured. When an IP address or host is configured, a portset must be specified, or the default portset 0 is selected. For more information, see Hosts.