Difference between physical WWPNs (7-mode) vs virtual WWPNs (cDOT or ONTAP)?

Physical  WWPNs  = Is a concept of 7-mode
Virtual*  WWPNs    = Is a concept of cDOT/ONTAP

*= By virtual it means 'Logical InterFace' or simply LIF, a term that is only applicable to cDOT. One of the major difference between 7-mode & cDOT is taking virtualization to the END Ports such as Physical Adapters be it a NIC or HBA. In 7-mode IP was tied to Physical NIC, and WWPN was tied to the Physical FC HBAs. However, in cDOT it's virtualized by introducing the concept of 'LIF', an abstraction on top of the physical (physical ports). In 7-mode we have VIF, which is also called Virtual Interface, but that is where the similarity ends. The objective of VIF was to support 'Link Aggregation' that's it, it was never truly virtualized the way LIF is in cDOT.

LIF : Is logical and can have either IP or WWPN.

When you open system manager GUI, under section Network : If you click on 'Network Interface' you can note the Logical WWPN and if you click on 'FC/FCoE' you will see Physical WWPN.

Zoning : Do not include 'Physical WWPN', only 'Virtual WWPN'

DO NOT use Physical WWPNs beginning with '50:0a:09:8x' they no longer present a SCSI target service and should not be included in any zone configurations on the FC fabric (though they show as logged in to the fabric).

DO use only virtual WWPNs (WWPNs starting with 20:).

IMPORTANT: NPIV is required for Fibre Channel LIFs to operate correctly. ONTAP uses N_Port ID virtualization (NPIV) to permit every logical interface to log in to an FC fabric with its own worldwide port name (WWPN). What NPIV does is allow a single physical N_Port to have multiple WWPNs, and therefore multiple N_Port_IDs, associated with it.

What is the advantage of Virtual/Logical WWPN: This allows a host (Physical or virtual) connected to the same FC fabric to communicate with the same 'SCSI target=LUN' regardless of which physical node owns which LIF.

Ensure NPIV is enabled on the Switch:
CISCO:
# show npiv status
NPIV is enabled

Brocade:
admin> portcfgshow
NPIV capability

TR-4080 has more details.