HP StorageWorks 2/140 FW 08.01.00 McDATA Products in a SAN Environment Plannin - Page 114
Fabric Performance, I/Os per second IOPS.
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Planning Considerations for Fibre Channel Topologies 3 If the fabric consists of a large number of elements (and therefore ISLs), Class F traffic may not be processed within the E_D_TOV, resulting in error recovery operations, timeouts, segmented links, or fabric failure. Because of these problems, a fabric with a high ISL count is more difficult to build. Problems associated with a large fabric are not directly related to the large number of fabric elements but to the large number of ISLs associated with the elements. Installing high-port count directors (such as the Intrepid 10000 Director) as SAN building blocks provides a larger number of non-blocking Fibre Channel ports. Large fabrics built around these directors require fewer additional fabric elements (smaller directors and fabric switches) and ISLs. The Intrepid 10000 Director also supports high-bandwidth (10.2000 Gbps) ISLs that reduce the fabric's total ISL count. In addition, fabrics and sub-fabrics can be merged or maintained as separate entities through flexible partitioning provided by the Intrepid 10000 Director. Large fabrics benefit from deterministic non-blocking performance, less ISL congestion, and better cable management - performance that is not possible from a fabric constructed with smaller port-count switches interconnected with multiple ISLs. Fabric Performance During the design phase of a Fibre Channel fabric, performance requirements of the fabric and of component directors, fabric switches, and devices must be identified and incorporated. An effective fabric design can accommodate changes to performance requirements and incorporate additional directors, switches, devices, ISLs, and higher speed links with minimal impact to fabric operation. Performance factors that affect fabric design include: • Application input/output (I/O) requirements, both in Gbps and I/Os per second (IOPS). • Storage port fan-out. • Hardware limits, including the maximum directors and switches per fabric, maximum number of ISLs per director or switch, and maximum hops between devices. For additional information, refer to Fabric Topology Limits. 3-30 McDATA Products in a SAN Environment - Planning Manual