McDATA® 4Gb SAN Switch for HP p-Class BladeSystem Installation Guide (AA-RW1XC-TE, November 2006)

McDATA® 4Gb SAN Switch for HP p-Class BladeSystem installation guide 19
2 Planning
Consider the following when planning a fabric:
• Devices, page 19
• Device access, page 19
• Performance, page 20
• Multiple switch fabrics, page 21
• Switch services, page 23
• Fabric security, page 24
• Fabric management, page 26
Devices
When planning a fabric, consider the number of public devices and the anticipated demand. This will
determine the number of ports that are needed and in turn the number of switches. See the HP
StorageWorks SAN Design Guide for more information.
For the two external Fibre Channel ports, the switch uses SFP optical transceivers, but the device you are
connecting to these ports may not. Consider whether the Fibre Channel ports on the device use SFP or
Gigabit Interface Converters (GBIC) transceivers, and choose fiber optic cables accordingly. Use LC-type
cable connectors for SFP transceivers and SC-type cable connectors for GBIC transceivers. Also consider
the transmission speed compatibility of your devices, Host Bus Adapters (HBA), switches, and SFPs.
Consider the distribution of targets and initiators. An F_Port supports a single public device. An FL_Port can
support up to 32 public devices in an arbitrated loop.
Device access
Consider device access needs within the fabric. Access is controlled by the use of zones and zone sets.
Some zoning strategies include the following:
• Group devices by operating system
• Separate devices that have no need to communicate with other devices in the fabric or have classified
data
• Separate devices into department, administrative, or other functional group
A zone is a named group of devices that can communicate with each other. Membership in a zone can be
defined by switch domain ID and port number, or by device World Wide Name (WWN). Devices can
communicate only with devices within the same zone. The switch supports one zone set; that is, the active
zone set. The active zone set contains the zones that determine the current fabric zoning.
Zoning divides the fabric for purposes of controlling device discovery. Devices in the same zone
automatically discover and communicate freely with all other members of the same zone. The following
rules apply to zones:
• Zones that include members from multiple switches need not include the ports of the inter-switch links.
• Zones can overlap; that is, a port can be a member of more than one zone.
• Membership can be defined by domain ID and port number, or World Wide Port Name (WWPN).
• Zoning supports FL_Ports and F_Ports.