BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to automatically provisioning fabrics for information handling systems.

As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.

Information handling systems sometimes utilize fabrics for communications. For example, a Fibre Channel (FC) switch may operate as an N_Port Identifier Virtualization (NPIV) gateway device that is connected to multiple uplink FC switch devices, with target devices connected to the uplink FC switch devices configured to communicate with end devices connected to the NPIV gateway device via fabrics assigned to the uplink FC switch devices. However, the conventional provisioning of such fabrics is a manual process that can raise a number of issues. For example, when multiple uplinks exist between the NPIV gateway device and different fabrics assigned to subsets of the uplink FC switch devices, the manual configuration of those virtual fabrics can be error prone and time consuming. To provide a specific example, when multiple uplinks exist between the NPIV gateway device and the same fabric, each of those uplinks must be configured to be part of the same virtual fabric, while when different uplinks exist between the NPIV gateway device and uplink FC switch devices in the same fabric, each of those uplinks must be configured to be part of the same virtual fabric, and when multiple uplinks exist between the NPIV gateway device and different fabrics, each of those uplinks must be configured to be part of a different virtual fabric. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the provisioning of fabrics in such systems is time consuming and prone to errors.

Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an automatic fabric provisioning system that addresses the issues discussed above.

SUMMARY

According to one embodiment, an Information Handling System (IHS) includes a processing system; and a memory system that is coupled to the processing system and that includes instructions that, when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to provide an automatic fabric provisioning engine that is configured to: transmit, to each of at least one first uplink switch device via at least one first uplink and to each of at least one second uplink switch device via at least one second uplink, a respective fabric login communication; receive, from each of the at least one first uplink switch devices via the at least one first uplink, a respective first fabric login accept communication that identifies a first fabric associated with that first uplink switch device and, in response, automatically associate each at least one first uplink with the first fabric; and receive, from each of the at least one second uplink switch devices via the at least one second uplink, a second respective fabric login accept communication that identifies a second fabric associated with that second uplink switch device and, in response, automatically associate each at least one second uplink with the second fabric.

