HP StorageWorks 4000/6000/8000 .HP StorageWorks SAN Design Reference Guide, Pa - Page 36

Routed SAN fabrics HP standard fabric topologies support Fibre Channel routing. Fibre Channel routing enables connectivity between devices in multiple fabrics, Virtual Fabrics, or multiple VSANs. HP supports the following routed fabric technologies: • "B-series Meta SAN" on page 49 • "C-series VSANs with IVR" on page 51 FCoE SAN fabrics HP standard fabric topologies can integrate with FCoE technology. FCoE is deployed in existing Ethernet and Fibre Channel environments providing convergence at the server and fabric edge using CNAs and FCoE CN switches. (See "FCoE fabric topologies" on page 52.) Benefits With HP standard SAN fabric topologies, you can: • Create a SAN fabric for each department or application in your organization. • Perform centralized management and backups. • Update a SAN fabric to accommodate changing capacity or data access needs. You can also convert to another SAN fabric topology as needed. • Connect devices over long distances using extended Fibre Channel or IP connections. (See "SAN fabric connectivity rules" on page 167 and "SAN extension" on page 279.) • Connect multiple SAN fabrics using routing technology. (See "B-series Meta SAN" on page 49.) • Deploy multiple logical fabrics using the Virtual Fabrics feature. • Deploy multiple VSANs. (See "C-series VSANs with IVR" on page 51.) • Incorporate a range of SAN availability levels. (See "Data availability" on page 53.) Single-switch fabric A single-switch fabric consists of a Fibre Channel switch, server, and storage system (Figure 1). This topology forms the basis for all HP standard topologies. For example, you can connect two single-switch fabrics to create a cascaded fabric. Or, you can connect three or more single-switch fabrics to create a ring fabric or a core-edge fabric. Figure 1 Single-switch fabric . 25089a 36 SAN fabric topologies