Virtual Fabric Membership Assignments for Fiber Channel Over Ethernet Network Devices

An apparatus comprising:

• a network interface configured to:
• communicate with a network device over a network;
• receive a virtual local area network (VLAN) discovery frame from the network device, wherein the network device is configured to encapsulate Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE);
• a processor configured to:
• extract a hardware media access control (MAC) address or Port World Wide Name (PWWN) of the network device from the VLAN discovery frame;
• identify a mapping between the network device and a corresponding virtual storage area network (V SAN) based on the hardware MAC address or PWWN, wherein the mapping identifies a corresponding VLAN for the network device to use for login in order to communicate with the corresponding VSAN;
• and
• send information representing the identified VLAN to the network device.

A computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• receive a virtual local area network (VLAN) discovery frame from a network device, wherein the network device is configured to encapsulate Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE);
• extract a hardware media access control (MAC) address or Port World Wide Name (PWWN) of the network device from the VLAN discovery frame;
• identify a mapping between the network device and a corresponding virtual storage area network (VSAN) based on the hardware MAC address or PWWN, wherein the mapping identifies a corresponding VLAN for the network device to use for login in order to communicate with the corresponding VSAN;
• and
• send information representing the identified VLAN to the network device.