HP StorageWorks 4000/6000/8000 - Enterprise Virtual Arrays, Reference Manual

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Routed SAN fabrics
HP standard fabric topologies support Fibre Channel routing. Fibre Channel routing enables connectivity
between devices in multiple fabrics, Virtual Fabrics, or multiple VSANs. HP supports the following
routed fabric technologies:
• “ B-series Meta SAN ” on page 49
• “ C-series VSANs with IVR ” on page 51
FCoE SAN fabrics
HP standard fabric topologies can integrate with FCoE technology. FCoE is deployed in existing
Ethernet and Fibre Channel environments providing convergence at the server and fabric edge using
CNAs and FCoE CN switches. (See “
FCoE fabric topologies ” on page 52.)
Benefits
With HP standard SAN fabric topologies, you can:
• Create a SAN fabric for each department or application in your organization.
• Perform centralized management and backups.
• Update a SAN fabric to accommodate changing capacity or data access needs. You can also
convert to another SAN fabric topology as needed.
• Connect devices over long distances using extended Fibre Channel or IP connections. (See
“
SAN fabric connectivity rules ” on page 167 and “ SAN extension ” on page 279.)
• Connect multiple SAN fabrics using routing technology. (See “ B-series Meta SAN ” on page 49.)
• Deploy multiple logical fabrics using the Virtual Fabrics feature.
• Deploy multiple VSANs. (See “ C-series VSANs with IVR ” on page 51.)
• Incorporate a range of SAN availability levels. (See “ Data availability ” on page 53.)
Single-switch fabric
A single-switch fabric consists of a Fibre Channel switch, server, and storage system ( Figure 1 ). This
topology forms the basis for all HP standard topologies. For example, you can connect two single-switch
fabrics to create a cascaded fabric. Or, you can connect three or more single-switch fabrics to create
a ring fabric or a core-edge fabric.
25089a
Figure 1 Single-switch fabric
.
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