Datasheet

Diagram #1
consolidation and are just beginning to
implement Fibre Channel storage sys-
tems. Such an entry-level configuration
can consist of one or two Fibre Channel
links to a disk storage array or to an
LTO tape drive. An entry-level eight-port
storage consolidation solution can sup-
port up to seven servers with a single
path to either disk or tape. The Ports
on Demand feature is designed to
enable a base switch to grow to sixteen
ports to support more servers and
more storage devices without taking
the switch offline.
A high-availability solution can be cre-
ated with redundant switches. This
capability is ideal for server clustering
environments. Such a configuration can
support from six to fourteen servers,
each with dual Fibre Channel adapters
cross-connected to redundant
SAN16B-2 Express Model switches
which are cross-connected to a dual-
controller storage system.
While the focus of the SAN16B-2
Express Model is as the foundation of
small to medium-sized SANs, it can be
configured to participate as a full mem-
ber in an extended fabric configuration
with other members of the
IBM TotalStorage SAN b-type family.
This capability helps provide investment
protection as SAN requirements evolve
and grow over time.
Simple SAN configuration
The introduction of large capacity, high-
availability storage systems offers new
opportunities for cost reduction through
storage consolidation and infrastructure
and management simplification. In older
environments each server accessed its
own dedicated storage capacity using
either internal disks that were contained
within the server or disks which were
part of an external system attached
exclusively to that server. It has become
difficult to sustain that approach as the
requirement for both storage capacity
and numbers of servers has increased.
Storage consolidation is a fundamental
objective of infrastructure simplification
and is based on the philosophy that it is
easiest to share and manage capacity
contained in a large capacity, high-
performance and high-availability exter-
nal storage system such as provided by
the IBM TotalStorage DS4000 family.
Fibre Channel Storage Area Networks
(SANs) were developed to provide effi-
cient, high performance access from
many servers to many storage devices.
While it is possible in very small environ-
ments to direct-connect servers to
external storage systems using fibre
channel links, it is more common to
configure a SAN switch between the
servers and the storage system to
enable multiple servers to share the
same storage capacity. This simple
SAN is depicted in Diagram #1 below.
The SAN16B-2 Express Model was
designed specifically for use as the
SAN switch in this type of configuration.
It is easy to install and easy to manage.
The tan, green and blue servers repre-
sent heterogeneous server types which
are members of the same SAN and
share capacity of the large disk system.