• Responsible for assigning port addresses for all devices on the fabric
• Ports send a login frame (FLOGI) to this server when they come online
• Login Server responds by assigning a port address (FCID)
The login server manages the process of “attaching” ports to the fabric.
The first thing we want to do is get an FC_ID. To do this we have to send a frame to the Login Server. We send a Fabric Login (or a FLOGI) to the well known address of FFFFFE. This is the Login Server on every switch from every vendor. Always the same, that way any HBA knows where to send the frame to. The Login Server will come back with an accept reply. In the accept reply the source ID (FFFFFE) will be that of the Login Server, and the destination ID will be the FC_ID that our node has been assigned.
This is how the N_Ports get the full 24 bit address.