FW 07.00.00/HAFM SW 08.06.00 McDATA Products in a SAN Environment Planning Manual (620-000124-500, April 2005)

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McDATA Products in a SAN Environment - Planning Manual

Implementing SAN Internetworking Solutions

• Creates a routed iSAN through an extended-distance iFCP

interface. Eclipse 1620 SAN routers at each end of the link provide

intelligent port connectivity and iFCP protocol conversion. The

routed SAN connection ensures disruptions at one site are

isolated and not allowed to propagate to other locations. This

connection does not support native FCP or FICON operation.

Figure 4-11 SoIP Extended-Distance Connectivity

Several network service providers provide long-distance IP or GbE

network transport services. Long-distance circuits are common. The

technology provides low overhead, low to medium bandwidth,

point-to-point transport of storage traffic, and is a cost-effective

choice for distance-extended data replication.

Technology

Comparison

Figure 4-12 illustrates the complex relationship between RTO, RPO,

and extended-distance transport technology options.

Extended-distance operational modes (SDR and ADR) are directly

associated with the transport technology choice. Note there is

substantial overlap in the functionality provided by transport

technologies and no single transport technology satisfies all BC/DR

requirements. Comparison factors to consider are:

• Repeated or unrepeated dark fiber - This technology supports

medium-bandwidth, low-latency applications with short RTO

and RPO requirements. Applications include real-time disk

mirroring (SDR or ADR) over short to medium metropolitan

distances. Unless one or more SAN routers are included in the

extended-distance link (native FCP only), the technology is

vulnerable to disruptions caused by fabric or link problems.