Setting Up Fibre Channel Storage End-to-End

This guide walks through the complete process of integrating Fibre Channel (FC) storage into MetalSoft: registering an FC switch, creating an FC fabric, configuring a storage pool, and provisioning FC drives to servers via the infrastructure editor.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure the following are in place:

• The FC switch is physically installed and cabled, with management access configured (IP address reachable from the MetalSoft controller).
• The storage appliance supports Fibre Channel (e.g. Dell PowerStore, NetApp ONTAP, Pure FlashArray, Hitachi VSP) and its FC ports are connected to the FC switch.
• Servers that will consume FC storage have FC HBAs (Host Bus Adapters) installed and cabled to the FC switch.
• You have admin access to the MetalSoft Admin UI.
• The MetalSoft agent or driver for the target storage appliance is configured. Refer to the Storage Appliances Prerequisites page for appliance-specific requirements.

Note

FC fabric management requires MetalSoft to have API-level access to the FC switch (e.g. via Brocade FOS REST API or Cisco DCNM/NDFC). Verify the switch driver is supported before proceeding.

---

Step 1: Register the FC Switch

The FC switch must be registered in MetalSoft as a network device so that MetalSoft can automate FC zoning during drive provisioning.

1. In the Admin UI, navigate to Network Devices in the left sidebar.
2. Click Add Network Device.
3. Fill in the following fields:
   • Name — a descriptive identifier for the switch (e.g. fc-switch-01).
   • Site — the site where the switch is physically located.
   • Driver — select the appropriate FC switch driver for your vendor (e.g. brocade_fos, cisco_mds).
   • Management Address — the IP address or hostname used to reach the switch management API.
   • Credentials — username and password (or API token) for switch management access.
4. Click Save.
5. Once saved, verify the switch appears in the Network Devices list with status Active. If the status shows an error, confirm the management address and credentials are correct and that the switch API is reachable from the MetalSoft controller.

Tip

You can also register the switch using the CLI:

metalcloud-cli network-device create --label fc-switch-01 --site-id <SITE_ID> --driver brocade_fos --address <MGMT_IP> --username <USER> --password <PASS>

---

Step 2: Create a Fibre Channel Fabric

A Fabric in MetalSoft groups network devices and defines network configuration policies. An FC fabric is required to enable FC zoning automation.

1. In the Admin UI, navigate to Fabrics in the left sidebar.
2. Click Add Fabric.
3. Fill in the following fields:
   • Name — a descriptive name for the FC fabric (e.g. fc-fabric-prod).
   • Description — optional description of the fabric’s purpose.
   • Type — select Fibre Channel.
4. Click Save. The fabric is created in Draft state.
5. Configure the FCID range for the fabric:
   • Open the newly created fabric.
   • Under Network Profiles, add a Fibre Channel network profile and define the FCID range to be allocated automatically during provisioning.
6. Add the FC switch to the fabric:
   • In the fabric detail view, navigate to the Network Devices section.
   • Click Add Network Device and select the FC switch registered in Step 1.
7. Once the switch is associated and configuration looks correct, change the fabric status from Draft to Active by clicking Activate Fabric.

Caution

Only set the fabric to Active once the switch has been verified and all configuration is correct. Activating the fabric makes it available for provisioning and cannot be easily undone without impacting running workloads.

---

Step 3: Add the Storage Pool

Register the FC-connected storage appliance as a storage pool in MetalSoft. If the storage pool is already registered, skip to Step 4.

1. In the Admin UI, navigate to Storage in the left sidebar.
2. Click Add Storage Pool.
3. Fill in the required fields:
   • Name — a descriptive name for the storage pool.
   • Site — the site where the appliance is located.
   • Driver — select the driver matching your storage appliance vendor (e.g. dell_powerstore, netapp_ontap, pure_flasharray).
   • Management Endpoint — the API endpoint URL for the storage appliance.
   • Array ID — the identifier of the storage array or pool. Refer to Storage Appliances Prerequisites for how to find this per vendor.
   • FC Enabled — enable this flag to activate Fibre Channel connectivity for this pool.
4. Associate the storage pool with the FC fabric created in Step 2 by selecting it in the Fabric field.
5. Click Save.
6. Verify the storage pool appears in the list with the correct available capacity. If capacity shows as zero or unavailable, check the appliance API credentials and connectivity.

---

Step 4: Add FC Drives in the Infrastructure Editor

With the switch, fabric, and storage pool configured, FC drives can now be provisioned to servers from within the infrastructure editor.

Open the Infrastructure Editor

1. Navigate to Infrastructures and open or create a target infrastructure.
2. Click Edit Infrastructure to open the infrastructure editor (also called the infrastructure designer).

Add a Drive Array

3. In the infrastructure editor, click Add Drive Array (or drag a drive array element onto the canvas from the element palette).

4. Configure the drive array:

   • Storage Pool — select the FC-enabled storage pool added in Step 3.
   • Drive Size (GB) — set the size for each drive.
   • Drive Count — number of drives to provision.
   • Storage Type — select the appropriate type (e.g. iscsi, nvme_fc, or scsi_fc depending on the appliance and HBA capabilities).

5. Click Save to add the drive array to the canvas.

Attach the Drive Array to a Server

6. Draw a connection between the server element and the drive array element on the canvas. This represents the server-to-storage attachment relationship.

7. If prompted, configure the attachment options:

   • Access Mode — select read_write (default) or read_only.
   • Boot Drive — enable if this drive should be the boot device (not typical for FC data drives).

Deploy the Infrastructure

8. Click Deploy to apply the configuration. MetalSoft will:
   • Provision the drives on the storage appliance.
   • Register the server’s WWPN in the storage appliance’s host list.
   • Configure FC zoning on the switch to allow the server HBA to access the provisioned drives.
   • Return connection details (WWPN targets, LUN IDs) to the server for multipath configuration.

Note

After deployment, the server’s operating system will need to discover the new FC targets. On Linux this is typically done with rescan-scsi-bus.sh or by triggering a HBA rescan. MetalSoft OS templates that include the multipath daemon (multipathd) will handle path discovery automatically.

---

Verifying the Setup

After a successful deployment, verify the end-to-end connectivity:

1. Switch zoning — log in to the FC switch and confirm that the expected zone has been created containing the server WWPN and the storage target WWPN.
2. Storage host mapping — log in to the storage appliance UI and confirm the server appears as a registered host with the correct LUN mapping.
3. Server visibility — on the provisioned server, run a storage scan command to confirm the drives are visible:

   # Linux — trigger HBA rescan
   echo "- - -" > /sys/class/scsi_host/host<N>/scan
   
   # List multipath devices
   multipath -ll

---

Next Steps

• Managing Storage Interfaces — view and configure FC storage interfaces on the storage pool.
• Managing Storage Pools — modify capacity, maintenance mode, and pool settings.
• Fabrics — manage the FC fabric configuration, network profiles, and FCID allocation.