Patent ID: 7492765

Claim:
A blade switch, comprising: a first port in communication with a first blade of a plurality of blades; a second port configured as an N_Port; and a logic device configured to do the following: receive a Fabric Log-in (“FLOGI”) request from the first blade via the first port; convert the FLOGI request to a Fabric Discovery (“FDISC”) request; forward the FDISC request to an F_Port of an attached fabric switch that is in communication with the second port; receive an FDISC ACCEPT from the attached fabric switch, the FDISC ACCEPT including the address for the first blade; and wherein F Ports of M cooperating fabric switches, including the attached fabric switch, are configured for communication with M N Ports of the blade switch, including the second port, wherein the M cooperating fabric switches form a virtual Domain ID and wherein the attached fabric switch determines a first address of the virtual Domain ID that will be used in the FDISC ACCEPT.