HP StorageWorks 64 FW 07.00.00/HAFM SW 08.06.00 McDATA Products in a SAN Envir - Page 117
Fabric Performance, I/Os per second IOPS.
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Planning Considerations for Fibre Channel Topologies 3 Fabric Performance I/O Requirements 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. • Software limits, including the maximum number of fabric elements managed by the SAN management application and the maximum number of zones and zone members. For additional information, refer to SAN Management Applications and Configuring Zones. McDATA directors and fabric switches are designed with nonblocking architecture; therefore any two switch ports can communicate at the full Fibre Channel bandwidth of 1.0625, 2.1250, or 10.2000 Gbps without impact to other switch ports. Because most SAN-attached devices are not capable of generating I/O traffic at the full bandwidth, there is little potential for congestion between two devices attached through a single director or switch. However, when multiple directors or switches are connected through a fabric ISL that multiplexes traffic from several devices, significant potential for congestion arises. To minimize congestion, factors such as application I/O profiles, ISL oversubscription, and device locality must be included in the fabric design. Application I/O Profiles Understanding application I/O characteristics is essential to SAN, fabric, and ISL design. Factors that may affect application I/O include: Planning Considerations for Fibre Channel Topologies 3-31