Patent ID: 8711864

Claim:
A computer system comprising: one or more host computers, configured to send and receive packets according to a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) network protocol; one or more target storage arrays, configured to communicate with the one or more host computers using the FCoE network protocol, wherein each target storage array is included in a virtual local area network (VLAN) with one of the host computers; wherein each of the one or more host computers is configured to: identify one or more VLANs of which the host computer is a member, wherein each VLAN is uniquely identified by a VLAN ID and includes just one of the target storage arrays; and send a separate login message to the target storage array in each of the identified VLANs; wherein each of the one or more target storage arrays is configured to: send a node port (N_Port) ID to the host computer in the VLAN comprising a host ID and the VLAN ID in response to receiving a login message from the given host computer, wherein the host ID uniquely identifies the host computer in the VLAN; extract Fibre Channel (FC) frames from received FCoE packets; and encapsulate FC frames in FCoE packets; wherein the VLAN is established between the host computer and the target storage array without an FCoE Forwarder (FCF) or an FCoE switch.