zfcp HBA API (FC-HBA) support

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 LPAR mode z/VM guest

The zfcp host bus adapter API (HBA API) provides an interface for HBA management clients that run on IBM® Z.

As shown in Figure 1, the zfcp HBA API support includes a user space library.

Figure 1. zfcp HBA API support modules
This graphic is described in the preceding text.

The SNIA (Storage Networking Industry Association) library can interface with the zFCP HBA API. The SNIA library is part of Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 8.6. It is available as software package libhbaapi, which is automatically installed when installing the zfcp HBA API, see Getting ready to run applications.

The default method in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 is for applications to use the zFCP HBA API library indirectly through the SNIA HBA API. If you develop applications yourself, see Developing applications.

In a Linux on IBM Z environment HBAs are usually virtualized and are shown as FCP devices. FCP devices are represented by CCW devices that are listed in /sys/bus/ccw/drivers/zfcp. Do not confuse FCP devices with SCSI devices. A SCSI device is a disk device that is identified by a LUN.

For information about setting up the HBA API support, see zfcp HBA API support.