QLogic announced that it is the first HBA vendor to ship production ready N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) solution for a shipping Linux distribution. Enterprise Linux customers can now get NPIV-capable Fibre Channel HBAs for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 1 (SP1), the latest Linux platform from Novell that features enhancements in virtualization, high performance computing, security, interoperability and system management. QLogic series HBAs provide hardware-assist features that enable dynamic provisioning and flexible usage of HBA resources, helping IT managers to extend SAN best practices into virtualized data centers.

"QLogic has been a long time collaborator in developing virtualization management solutions in the data center," said Alan Murray, vice president of Product Management for Systems and Resource Management at Novell. "With today's announcement, enterprises can use ZENworks Orchestrator and QLogic NPIV to manage virtual ports on our SUSE Linux Enterprise Server platform, and use both physical and virtual resources more efficiently."

"After years of collaboration between our two companies, Novell and QLogic are now shipping virtual HBA solutions for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server configurations," said Amit Vashi, vice president of marketing, QLogic Host Solutions Group. "Customers using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell can now manage virtual machines and NPIV capabilities using a single management utility."

QLogic NPIV technology for Linux operating systems allows storage administrators to create virtual HBA ports using a comprehensive systems management tool. Novell ZENworks Orchestrator and Virtual Machine Management, an innovative component of the Novell data center management solution, not only manages virtual machines but also has the capability to create and provision virtual HBA ports across multiple physical servers. Storage administrators who deploy ZENworks Orchestrator and Virtual Machine Management along with QLogic Fibre Channel HBAs can now create virtual machines and ports that are easier to manage, maintain and support across the virtualized data center.