N_Port ID Virtualization(NPIV) is a Fibre Channel industry standard technology that provides the capability to assign a physical Fibre Channel adapter multiple unique world wide port names (WWPNs). NPIV enables the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) to provision entire dedicated logical ports to client LPAR's rather than individual LUNs. A physical Fibre Channel HBA in VIOS can be shared across multiple guest operating systems in a virtual environment.

Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) supports the NPIV presented devices for the rootvg, within the requirements outlined in the vendor support matrix.

All the LUNs presented through NPIV for a client LPAR have the characteristics of a dedicated HBA. Therefore the procedure for using DMP on rootvg devices from NPIV presented devices is similar to using DMP on rootvg devices from physical HBA. Use of DMP on rootvg is supported through vxdmproot native command.

The behavior of data volumes presented through NPIV devices is similar to those presented through physical HBA. All SCSI device inquiry operations work and SCSI-3 persistent reservation functionality is also supported, enabling the use of SCSI-3 I/O Fencing if the underlying storage supports.

A hybrid solution is supported where the AIX rootvg is placed on vSCSI devices presented through a VIO pair with application data volumes presented through NPIV. This solution is often chosen to facilitate NPIV troubleshooting as well as presenting a consistent NIM installation profile.