5.9 FC Switch

Figure 5-24. Front view of the Hewlett-Packard FC Switch.

Figure 5-25. Back view of the Hewlett-Packard Fibre Channel Switch

The is capable of allowing Fibre Channel connections to either Private Loops (arbitrated loops ), or to Fibre Channel Fabric. EPL (Emulated Private Loop), also known as QL (Quick Loop) will be available at first release, and supported on HP-UX 11.0 and HP-UX 10.20 with the appropriate patches. This mode is used to support legacy systems and peripherals previously supported on existing HP-UX 11.0 operating systems. The Fabric support will not be available until the release of HP-UX 11.01, or greater.

The first release will support legacy systems, such as K-Class, D-Class, T-Class, and V-Class, running the above-mentioned HP-UX 10.20 or 11.0 operating system versions. The host systems will use the existing A3404A, A3636A, A3591B, and A3740A Fibre Channel adapters. Once HP-UX 11.01 is available, the FC Switch will be supported using the A5157A dual Tachyon TL Fibre Channel adapter, and the A5158A single Tachyon TL Fibre Channel adapter.

These two new adapters are PCI-based, and will be used in the V2500 and K4000 SPU platforms, on HP-UX 11.01 only.

The Gigabit Fibre Channel Switch will be available in a 16 port configuration (the unit ships with NO GBICs installed), From one to four GBIC options may be used, but at least one must be ordered. Each GBIC option provides four GBICs (GigaBit Interface Converter) which are installed into any desired empty position in the switch. It is possible to use either shortwave, or long-wave GBIC optics. No more than one long wave option may be used at this time.

Use of the long-wave GBIC has limited applications at this time, and any customer wanting to use the long-wave GBIC should request configuration assistance to avoid unsupported/unsupportable configurations which would impair their ability to use this as a SAN (Storage Area Network) solution. The Gigabit Fibre Channel Switch is non-Cascadeable product, meaning only one switch may be used per host connection(s). Multiple hosts may be connected to a single switch.

There is a limit to the number of hosts that can be attached to a single switch. Please reference the Server Configuration Guide on the Hewlett-Packard public Web site at www.hp.com.

The Gigabit Fibre Channel Switch can be use to connect 16 Fibre Channel devices together ( consult the Server Configuration Guide for supported configurations). Devices may be either a direct attachment to the switch (as in a Host system, or a Fibre Channel peripheral); or may be through an FC-AL Hub (provides a local loop at that particular attachment); or by way of an FC-SCSI Multiplexer for certain tape or disk configurations (see the <ili t="ctl" pubwork="b">Server Configuration Guide ).

Only one loop connection may be used per Hub. There is a limit of one loop master per Fabric Port. If more than one loop master (FL Port) is used, one will remain inactive (be wasted ) until such time as the original FL port fails. At first release, the Fibre Channel Switch will only support EMC disk arrays. Other models of disk arrays, and other mass storage will be supported at a later date. One example is shown below.

The Gigabit Fibre Channel Switch operates as multiple channels, and is capable of providing up to eight concurrent connections. Each connection is capable of operating at the full 1 Gigabit speed. This is a significant improvement as current solutions have a single loop, which has a total speed of 1 Gigabit, which is shared between all of the attached devices.

The Gigabit Fibre Channel Switch will allow a higher transfer rate, while providing a bridge between the current Fibre Channel solutions customers have bought, and providing a link to the capabilities to be offered in the future. The Gigabit Fibre Channel Switch initially will be supported in many configurations, but will be restricted, for support reasons, to no more than two switches (not cascaded) per cluster/configuration.

There also will be a limit of no more than eight HOSTs allowed per pair of switch connections. This allows for a High Availability (HA) redundant path configuration to maximize the availability of the host systems and mass storage. See Figure 5-26. The switch will allow connection of many legacy Fibre Channel devices, but the initial release will target the EMC disk arrays and the new Hewlett-Packard Fibre Channel disk arrays.

Figure 5-26. Example of FC Switch Configuration

Other mass storage will be announced as testing is completed. The configurations that will become available in the topologies using the switch become very complicated, very quickly. As such complexity is inherent with the switch, it is strongly advised that ANY configurations not specified in the HP-UX Servers Configuration Guide NOT BE IMPLEMENTED AT ANY SITE.

The Hewlett-Packard research lab, in conjunction with all of its partners , is certifying configurations as rapidly as possible for as many peripherals as possible.

The Gigabit Fibre Channel Switch will also utilize Hewlett-Packard's Fibre Channel Manager to provide configuration and Fibre Channel cluster management. The Fibre Channel Manager is a separate product, and has several requirements associated with its use, such as a workstation or other server to act as the monitoring terminal. The Gigabit Fibre Channel Switch will also interface with the Hewlett-Packard Fibre Channel Monitor program to provide proactive monitoring of events which could impact the operation of the system(s) attached to the Fibre Channel switch (exact release date of the Fibre Channel Monitor program is not yet fixed).