HP AA979A - StorageWorks SAN Switch 2/8V, Administrator'S Manual, Page: 224 / 465

226 Using the FC-FC routing service
Fibre Channel routing concepts
Fibre Channel routing introduces the following concepts:
• Logical Storage Area Networks (LSANs)
An LSAN is defined by zones in two or more edge or backbone fabrics that contain the same device(s).
You can create LSANs that can span fabrics. These LSANs enable Fibre Channel zones to cross
physical SAN boundaries without merging the fabrics while maintaining the access controls of zones
(refer to Figure 9 ).
Figure 9 A metaSAN with edge-to-edge and backbonef fabrics
• EX_Port, VEX_Port
Special types of ports, called an
EX_Port
and a VEX_Port
,
function somewhat like an E_Port, but
terminate at the switch and do not propagate fabric services or routing topology information from one
edge fabric to another. The link between an E_Port and EX_Port, or VE_Port and VEX_Port is called an
interfabric Link
(IFL). You can configure multiple IFLs from a 400 MP Router, a B-Series MP Router blade
(operating in a 4/256 SAN Director using chassis configuration option 5), from additional MP Routers,
or from all three. These are referred to as “an FC router” throughout this chapter and unless specified,
any FC router can be used.
FC-FC Routing services do not support EX_Ports and VEX_Ports connected to the same edge fabrics (refer to
Figure 10 ). Refer to ” Configuring and monitoring FCIP tunneling ” on page 393 for details about VE_Ports.
Edge fabric 1
Backbone fabric
Edge fabric 3
Edge fabric 2
IP cloud
= LSAN
400 MP
Router
VEX_Port
VE_Port
EX_Port (2)
E_Port
E_Port
IFL
IFL IFL
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