Page 2 - BROCADE SAN Integration and Application Department; BROCADE Technical Note; Design and Best Practices Guide; This document contains BROCADE; Introduction; If you need to exceed the limits presented in
Last UpdatedMarch 29, 2001 3:18 pm BROCADE SAN Integration and Application Department 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page 2 of 31 Design and Best Practices Guide This document contains BROCADE © recommendations and guidelines for configuring a Storage Area Network (SAN). The document includes ...
Page 3 - Fabric Topologies; Meshed Topology Designs; Provide any-to-any connectivity for devices; Star Topology Designs; Two hops maximum, consistent latency
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 3 of 31 2.0 Fabric Topologies This section explores a variety of fabric topologies and provides some specific network examples for SAN fabrics. Topologies fall into the following general categories: • Meshed Topology-- a n...
Page 4 - Tier Architecture Designs; Each layer can be scaled independently; EDU NDANC Y
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 4 of 31 Tier Architecture Designs • Typically three layers of switches, a host layer, core layer, and storage layer • Natural extension to star design (in some cases, Tier designs are Stars) • Core switches are used to pro...
Page 5 - Single fabric, resilient
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 5 of 31 useful when combined with a link extender that can allow from 30 to 120 kilometers distance between switch elements. There is a latency penalty for extended links that needs to considered where performance is a con...
Page 6 - This is generally the best; The following discussion will be about
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 6 of 31 Half of the switches are connected to form one fabric, and the other half form an identical fabric, which is completely unconnec ted to the first fabric. There is no single point of failure in either fabric which c...
Page 7 - This solution will allow for:; Hosts and
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 7 of 31 F I G U R E 2 . Two Core Switch, Two ISL, Star Design. The above SAN is a single fabric, resilient design. To deploy a dual fabric, resilient SAN based upon this architecture, the following SAN would be built F I G...
Page 8 - redundant SAN stays in operation; AM P L E
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 8 of 31 • Switch upgrades can take place on one SAN (firmware, hardware, both) and while this SAN is down the redundant SAN stays in operation • A switch failure in one SAN allow for failover to the redundant SAN while the...
Page 9 - Two Fabrics -- Simplest Redundant Fabric Configuration; SW
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 9 of 31 2.4 D UAL S W IT CH H IG H A VAIL ABIL ITY C O NF IG UR ATIO N - R E DUN DANT F ABR IC F I G U R E 4 . Two Fabrics -- Simplest Redundant Fabric Configuration H SW D H SW • Can use multiple hosts sharing single disk...
Page 10 - Extended Fabric Example
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 10 of 31 2.5 T W O S W ITC H F A BRIC FO R M IRRO RING AN D D IS ASTE R T O L ER ANCE F I G U R E 5 . Extended Fabric Example H SW D H SW • Sample configuration showing only two hosts and two storage devices, larger config...
Page 11 - HIghly Available Small Fabric; Numbers above are labels for the links, see text
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 11 of 31 2.6 H IG H L Y A V AILA BL E S M AL L F A BRIC C O NF IG URA TIO N F I G U R E 6 . HIghly Available Small Fabric SW SW • In this design, any switch can fail and there will still be an alternative path to the host ...
Page 12 - SAN B; SAN Building Block showing expansion to 17 switch Mesh Fabric
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 12 of 31 2.7 SAN B UILD ING B L O CK - M ESH E D F ABR IC C O N SISTIN G OF T W O S T AR T O PO L O G IES C O NNE CT ED B Y A M ESH F I G U R E 7 . SAN Building Block showing expansion to 17 switch Mesh Fabric • An atomic ...
Page 13 - Star Topology -- with Core and Edge Switches; Core
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 13 of 31 2.8 S TA R T O P O LO G Y D E SIG N In the traditional data networking world, star topology network has a core of networking equipment (hubs, switches, and routers) with other equipment radiating out from this. A ...
Page 14 - Two Switch Core Star SAN Design
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 14 of 31 FIGURE 10. Two Switch Core Star SAN Design The strengths of this design are numerous. This provides lowest hop count design, uses the fewest switches for the given port count, has the best and easiest to analyze p...
Page 15 - Maximum of 20 switches in Star topology
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 15 of 31 F I G U R E 1 1 . Star Topologies shown with 2x16 port switch at the core and with 4x16 port switch at the core Brocade has tested and validate star SAN designs today with our SilkWorm 2800 16 port switch. The two...
Page 16 - Star Topologies Possible with 2 switch cores; IE R
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 16 of 31 FIGURE 12. Star Topologies Possible with 2 switch cores 2.9 T IE R D ESIG N
Page 17 - Three Tier Design used in Fabric Aware Testing at Brocade
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 17 of 31 Three Tier designs in general allow for higher port count fabrics over Star designs (using the same switch building blocks) but can add additional hops to the design. A middle (core) set of switches can be used to...
Page 18 - MUlti Tier SAN Design across an Extended Link
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 18 of 31 FIGURE 14. MUlti Tier SAN Design across an Extended Link Depicted in the next diagram is a 20 switch fabric, three tier, with 4 switches at the core. This fabric offers 2 hops from sour ce to destina-tions, with m...
Page 19 - Twenty Switch Three Tier Design (also a Star configuration); 92 user ports total total of 64 ISLs
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 19 of 31 FIGURE 15. Twenty Switch Three Tier Design (also a Star configuration) • 192 user ports total; total of 64 ISLs • Multiple equal cost paths between end nodes via a redundant switch • Maximum of two hops between de...
Page 20 - SAN Topologies and Port Counts Supported by Brocade
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 20 of 31 2.9.1 S UM M A RY A variety of SAN designs topologies and port counts can be deployed today using Brocade switch. The Fabric Operating System prov ides for auto-discovery and configuration of the SAN as devices ar...
Page 21 - Additional Considerations in Fabric Design and Implementation; AB RIC
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 21 of 31 3.0 Additional Considerations in Fabric Design and Implementation 3.1 F AB RIC B RING U P A large (greater than 8) switch fabric will require care and planning on initial power up and for expanding switch elements...
Page 22 - Valid and Invalid Configurations using Inter Switch Links; ABL ING
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 22 of 31 FIGURE 17. Valid and Invalid Configurations using Inter Switch Links 3.3 C ABL ING AND M ED IA I NT ER FA CES Fibre channel supports several cable and optical media interface options. • The shortest supported opti...
Page 25 - SAN M; AN AG EM E NT
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 25 of 31 of Fibre Channel is that data is transferred based on buffer credits assigned to ports and sending and receiving devices manage the credits so that there is never an overrun of data in the switch. Blocking is also...
Page 28 - G lossary; Value used to identify source or destination of a frame; Proprietary operating system on BROCADE switches.; T M
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 28 of 31 4.0 G lossary This glossary provides definitions for the fibre channel and switch terminology used in BROCADE guide . TABLE 1. Glossary of Fibre Channel and SAN Design Terminology Term Definition Address Identifie...
Page 29 - Term
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 29 of 31 Frame Fibre channel structure used to transmit data. Consists of start-of-frame delimiter, header, any optional headers, data payload, cyclic redundancy check (CRC), and end-of-frame delimiter. There are two types...
Page 31 - Copyright; IMPORTANT NOTICE; ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Part number: 53-0000023-03
SAN Design: March 29, 2001 3:18 pm 53-0001575-01 BROCADE Technical Note Page: 31 of 31 Copyright IMPORTANT NOTICE This document is the property of BROCADE. It is intended solely as an aid for installing and configuring Storage Area Networks c onstructed with BROCADE switches. This document does not ...
