.SAN design reference guide Vol. 1-5 785350-001

• Front phantom domains—All EX_Ports on a Fibre Channel router that are connected to the
same edge fabric are presented as a single front phantom domain.
• Translate phantom domains—Assigned to each remote fabric connected to a 1606 Extension
SAN Switch, DC Dir Switch MP Extension Blade, 400 MP Router, or MP Router Blade. Each
fabric has one unique translate domain, regardless of how many EX_Ports are connected to
the fabric.
• Backbone fabric—The 1606 Extension SAN Switch or DC Dir Switch MP Extension Blade
backbone fabric consists of at least one 1606 Extension SAN Switch or DC Dir Switch MP
Extension Blade, and includes all MP Routers and B-series switches connected via E_Ports to
the 1606 Extension SAN Switch or DC Dir Switch MP Extension Blade. When you install a
DC Dir Switch MP Extension Blade in an SN8000B 8-Slot or 4-Slot Director, DC SAN Backbone
Director or a DC04 SAN Director, all devices connected to the SAN Director Fibre Channel
ports are part of the backbone fabric.
• Edge fabric—A fabric that is attached to an EX_Port on a 1606 Extension SAN Switch or DC
Dir Switch MP Extension Blade.
1606 Extension SAN Switch and DC Dir Switch MP Extension Blade hop count
The 1606 Extension SAN Switch and DC Dir Switch MP Extension Blade are counted in the same
way as a Fibre Channel switch when determining the fabric hop count (Figure 55 (page 119)).
Devices communicating across fabrics through an MP Router must adhere to both the B-series 7-hop
limit within an edge fabric and the MP Router 12-hop limit.
1606 Extension SAN Switch and DC Dir Switch MP Extension Blade usage
Use a DC Dir Switch MP Extension Blade:
• If you want to add multiple fabrics to a Meta SAN, and one of those fabrics contains an
SN8000B 8-Slot or 4-Slot Director, a DC SAN Backbone Director, or a DC04 SAN Director
with an available slot for a DC Dir Switch MP Extension Blade
NOTE: All devices connected to one of the SAN Director's Fibre Channel ports are part of
the backbone fabric.
• If you want to share up to 512 local devices in a backbone fabric connected to multiple edge
fabrics
• For FCIP, if there are SN8000B 8-Slot or 4-Slot Directors, DC SAN Backbone Directors, or
DC04 SAN Directors at both the local site and remote site
Use a 1606 Extension SAN Switch:
• If you do not have an SN8000B 8-Slot or 4-Slot Director, a DC SAN Backbone Director, or
a DC04 SAN Director, and do not plan to use one
• For FCIP, if there are no SN8000B 8-Slot or 4-Slot Directors, DC SAN Backbone Directors,
or DC04 SAN Directors at the local site or remote site
• If you do not have an available slot in your SN8000B 8-Slot or 4-Slot Director, DC SAN
Backbone Director, or DC04 SAN Director to install a DC Dir Switch MP Extension Blade
For use-case configuration examples, see the 400 MP Router and MP Router Blade use-case white
papers at http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/sanwhitepapers.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN.
Fibre Channel routing, 400 MP Router, and MP Router Blade fabric rules
This section describes the fabric rules for 8 Gb/s switches with license-enabled integrated Fibre
Channel routing, the 400 MP Router, and the MP Router Blade, and other factors you should
consider when building B-series fabrics that contain Fibre Channel routing. The fabric rules for
Fibre Channel routing apply to SANs that include the same operating system and storage products
as the B-series switches. See “Operating systems and storage products” (page 103). For information
110 B-series switches and fabric rules