Technical data

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. Page 9 of 48
HBAs communicate with the TOE using Fibre Channel (FC) or FC over IP (FCIP) protocols. Storage devices in turn
are physically connected to the TOE using FC/FCIP interfaces. When more than one instance of the TOE is
interconnected (i.e. installed and configured to work together), they are referred to collectively as a “SAN fabric”. A
zone is a specified group of fabric-connected devices (called zone members) that have access to one another.
The remainder of this section summarizes the TOE architecture.
2.1 TOE Overview
The TOE provides the ability to centralize the location of storage devices in a network in the environment. Instead
of attaching disks or tapes to individual hosts in the environment, or for example attaching a disk or tape directly to
the network, storage devices can be physically attached to the TOE, which can then be physically attached to host
bus adapters in the environment. Host bus adapters that are connected to the TOE can then read from and write to
storage devices that are attached to the TOE according to TOE configuration. Storage devices in the environment
appear to the operating system running on the machine that the host bus adapter is installed in as local (i.e. directly-
attached) devices.
More than one host bus adapter can share one or more storage devices that are attached to the TOE according to
TOE configuration. Scalability is achieved by interconnecting multiple instances of TOE directors and switches to
form a fabric that supports different numbers of host bus adapters and storage devices.
Directors and switches both can be used by host bus adapters to access storage devices using the TOE. Switch
appliances provide a fixed number of physical interfaces to hosts and storage devices in the environment. Directors
provide a configurable number of physical interfaces using a chassis architecture that supports the use of blades that
can be installed in and removed from the director chassis according to administrator configuration.
There are administrative interfaces to manage TOE services that can be accessed using an Ethernet network, as well
as interfaces that can be accessed using a directly-attached console as follows:
• Ethernet network-based web-based administrator console interfaces –Provides web-based administrator
console interfaces called the “Brocade Advanced Web Tools.”
• Ethernet network-based command-line administrator console interfaces – Provides command-line
administrator console interfaces called the “FabricOS Command Line Interface.”
• Serial terminal-based command-line administrator console interfaces – Provides command-line
administrator console interfaces called the “FabricOS Command Line Interface.”
There also exists administrative Ethernet network-based programmatic API interfaces that can be protected using
SSL. The API interface is not supported in the evaluated configuration. Similarly, there exists a modem hardware
component that is optional to the product that can be used in a similar manner as a serial console port, but it is
disabled by virtue of not being physically installed during initial installation and configuration in the evaluated
configuration.
The TOE can operate in either “Native Mode” or “Access Gateway Mode”. Only Native mode is supported in the
evaluated configuration. Access Gateway mode makes the switch function more like a “port aggregator” and in
Access Gateway mode the product does not support the primary access control security functions (mainly zoning)
claimed when operating in Native mode.
The basic concept of operations from an administrator’s perspective is depicted below. While actual
implementations may interconnect multiple instances of TOE models, each TOE device (i.e., instance of the TOE) is
administered individually.