HP Fabric OS v7.0.1, Administrator'S Manual

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Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide 397
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Supported topologies for ICL connections
19
Supported topologies for ICL connections
You can connect the Brocade Backbones in a mesh topology and a core-edge topology. A brief
description of each follows.
The illustrations in this section show sample topologies. Refer to the Brocade SAN Scalability
Guidelines for details about maximum topology configurations.
Mesh topology
You can connect the Brocade Backbones in a mesh topology, in which every chassis is connected
to every other chassis.
A simple form of the mesh topology is the triangular topology (shown in Figure 60 ). The triangular
topology is supported among three Brocade Backbone chassis. The three chassis must all be from
the same family:
•
Brocade DCX Backbone family (DCX or DCX-4S)
•
Brocade DCX 8510 Backbone family (DCX 8510-8 or DCX 8510-4)
FIGURE 60
ICL triangular topology with Brocade DCX 8510-8 chassis
During an ICL break in the triangular topology, the chassis that has the connections of the other
two is the main chassis. Any error messages relating to a break in the topology appear in the
RASlog of the main chassis.
For the Brocade DCX Backbone family only: If one ICL is broken but there is a regular ISL, the
triangular topology holds given that the ISL cost is lower than the total cost through the ICL linear
topology. If a direct ICL link between two chassis is broken, the triangular topology is considered
broken when the ISL path between the two switches is a multiple hop. In this case, the triangular
topology broken message is posted independently of the cost of the ISL path being lesser or
greater than the ICL path between the two switches.
Domain 2
DCX 8510-8
Domain 3
DCX 8510-8
Domain 1
DCX 8510-8