HP StorageWorks 2/24 FW 07.00.00/HAFM SW 08.06.00 McDATA Products in a SAN Env - Page 104
SAN Islands, Planning for Multiswitch Fabric Support, Tier 2
View all HP StorageWorks 2/24 manuals
Add to My Manuals
Save this manual to your list of manuals |
Page 104 highlights
Planning Considerations for Fibre Channel Topologies 3 • Tier 2 - A Tier 2 device connects to an edge switch and Fibre Channel traffic from the device must traverse only one ISL (hop) to reach a device attached to a core director or switch. • Tier 3 - A Tier 3 device connects to an edge switch and Fibre Channel traffic from the device can traverse two ISLs (hops) to reach a device attached to a core director or switch. SAN Islands A SAN island is an isolated or geographically diverse Fibre Channel fabric. These fabrics may also comprise different topologies (mesh or core-to-edge), but may require connectivity for shared data access, resource consolidation, data backup, remote mirroring, or disaster recovery. When connecting multiple fabrics, data traffic patterns and fabric performance requirements must be well known. Fabric island connectivity must adhere to topology limits, including maximum number of fabric elements and ISL hop count. It is also essential to maintain data locality within fabric islands as much as possible and to closely monitor bandwidth usage between the fabric islands. Refer to SAN Island Consolidation for additional information. Planning for Multiswitch Fabric Support A Fibre Channel topology that consists of one or more interconnected director or switch elements is called a fabric. The product operational software provides the ability to interconnect directors and switches (through E_Port connections) to form a multiswitch fabric. Support of multiswitch fabric operation is a major feature of a director or fabric switch. Consider installation of multiple directors or switches to form a high-availability fabric topology that supports multiple, fullbandwidth data transmission paths between servers and devices. Figure 3-11 illustrates a simple multiswitch fabric. In the figure, the three fabric elements are Intrepid 6064 Directors. Fabric elements cooperate to receive data from the N_Port of an attached device, route the data through the proper director or switch fabric ports (F_Ports), and deliver the data to the N_Port of a destination device. The data transmission path through the fabric is typically determined by the fabric elements and is transparent to the user. Subject to zoning restrictions, devices attached to any of the interconnected directors or switches can communicate with each other through the fabric. 3-18 McDATA Products in a SAN Environment - Planning Manual