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

6 C-series switches and fabric rules
This chapter describes the C-series Fibre Channel and FCoE switches and the fabric rules for
building C-series fabrics. It describes the following topics:
• “C-series Fibre Channel switches” (page 123)
• “Fibre Channel switch fabric rules” (page 135)
• “C-series and Cisco FCoE Converged Network switches” (page 84)
NOTE: For information about using switches from the different series in the same SAN or fabric,
see “SAN fabric connectivity and switch interoperability rules” (page 152).
C-series Fibre Channel switches
C-series Fibre Channel switches have the following features:
• They can be core or edge switches. When configured in a core-edge topology, a core switch
typically connects to other switches in the SAN; an edge switch typically connects to servers
and storage.
• They are supported for use with FCIP through the HP IP Distance Gateway. For more
information, see “SAN extension” (page 257).
• HP StoreFabric SN8500C 8-slot 16Gb FC Director can accommodate high port density (up
to 384 ports). The base units include an 8- slot modular chassis with two hot swappable
redundant Supervisor–1 Modules, six hot swappable redundant 3000W Power Supplies, and
three hot swappable redundant Fabric 1 Modules, providing up to 384 ports of full 16Gbps
line-rate performance across all ports. The open expansion slots of the SN8500C Director
can be filled by with HP StoreFabric C-series Family Modules, which include a 48-port 16Gb
FC Module.
◦ The HP StoreFabric SN8500C 48-port 16Gb FC Module is recommended for
high-performance 16 Gb/s enterprise-level host connections, storage connections, and
ISL connections.
◦ The HP StoreFabric SN8500C Fabric-1 Module (up to six total per chassis) allows N+1
Fabric Modules protection to provide zero impact to Application Bandwidth in the event
of a fabric card or supervisor card failure.
• HP SN8000C 6-Slot Supervisor 2A Director Switch, HP SN8000C 9-Slot Supervisor 2A
Director Switch, HP SN8000C 13-Slot Supervisor 2A Fabric 2 Director Switch, HP SN8000C
13-Slot Supervisor 2A Fabric 3 Director Switch, MDS 9506, MDS 9509, and MDS 9513
Director switches can accommodate various Fibre Channel Switching Modules, IP Storage
Services Modules (IPS), a Multiprotocol Services Module, a Multiservice Module, and a Storage
Services Module (SSM).
◦ The 12-port 4 Gb/s Fibre Channel Switching Module is recommended for
high-performance 4 Gb/s enterprise-level host connections, storage connections, and ISL
connections.
◦ The 24-port 4 Gb/s Fibre Channel Switching Module uses 2:1 internal oversubscription
across four 6-port port groups and is recommended for 4 Gb/s enterprise-level mid-range
host and storage connections.
◦ The 48-port 4 Gb/s Fibre Channel Switching Module uses 4:1 internal oversubscription
across four 12-port port groups and is recommended for 4 Gb/s low-range host
connections and tape devices connections.
C-series Fibre Channel switches 123