HP StorageWorks 4000/6000/8000 .HP StorageWorks SAN Design Reference Guide, Pa - Page 42

Figure 6 Ring fabric with satellite switches . 25094a Switch models All HP Fibre Channel switches are supported for use in a ring fabric topology. Ring fabric topologies typically use the SN6000 Fibre Channel Switch; the 8/20q Fibre Channel Switch (or the HP Simple SAN Connectivity Kit); or SAN, Fabric, or Edge switches, which support smaller incremental growth. To meet higher port-count requirements, use Core or Director switches. Benefits The benefits of a ring fabric include: • Modular design and ease of scalability by adding a switch and other devices • Multiple paths for internal fabric resiliency • Support for a mix of local data access and occasional centralized data access Core-edge fabric HP recommends using a core-edge fabric wherever possible. A core-edge fabric has one or more Fibre Channel switches (called core switches) that connect to edge switches in the fabric (Figure 7). The core switches provide high bandwidth and redundant connectivity to the edge switches. The edge switches provide user ports for servers and storage. You can also connect centralized storage (disk or tape) to the core switches if centralized access is required. The core-edge fabric is optimal for: • Many-to-many connectivity environments that require high performance • Unknown or changing I/O traffic patterns • SAN-wide storage pooling 42 SAN fabric topologies