HP Fibre Channel Fabric Migration Guide

Fabric Migration Guide
Migrating to Fabric
Chapter 14
Migrating to Fabric
A Fibre Channel fabric (one or more switches in a configuration) can
provide multiple benefits including independent bandwidth per port,
greater reliability, and increased performance.
Before you change your environment to a fabric supported environment,
read the following sections carefully. They list the advantages and
considerations of migrating to fabric, the requirements for fabric
configurations, and examples of the configurations we support with the
following host bus adapters:
• A5158A PCI Fibre Channel Tachyon TL Adapter
• A6684A HSC Fibre Channel Tachlite Adapter
• A6685A HSC Fibre Channel Tachlite Adapter
• A6795A PCI Fibre Channel Tachyon XL2 Adapter
• A6826A PCI-X Dual Port Fibre Channel Adapter
The configuration examples and some of the terminology we used are
specific to the Brocade switch. We used this switch only as an example.
HP also supports other switches. See the “Supported Platforms, Switches
and Devices” link under Fibre Channel HBAs on our web site accessed
through the ITRC. Log on to the ITRC web site (http://itrc.hp.com),
and click on navigate knowledge trees and response center FAQs.
In the Hardware area, navigate the links to networks/mass storage
connectivity/fibre channel/technical support.
Important Considerations of Migrating to Fabric
When migrating from a private loop environment to a fabric
environment, consider the following advantages.
Reliability
• Total removal of LIPs for N_Port (Direct Fabric Attach) devices
results in the following:
— No LIP storms.
— No lost frames due to other devices going offline or coming online
on the link.