Techniques for creating connections in a network fabric

Abstract

Techniques for creating and establishing a configuration of connections between an initiator system and a target system can use whitelisted target ports, wherein the configuration only includes connections to selected whitelisted target ports. Automatic login of each initiator to all zoned and discovered target ports can be avoided where, alternatively, an on-demand or needs-based login can be performed by having each initiator only log into its whitelisted target ports. In this manner, better resource usage and scalability can be obtained using the techniques of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, the whitelisted target ports can be determined automatically using an intersection of target port lists obtained using a control path connection and using a fabric nameserver query. The configuration including the whitelisted targets can be persistently stored on the initiator system to enable restoration of the whitelisted targets across reboots and resets of the initiator system.