Datasheet

Diagram #3
distances (up to 35 km) using longwave
SFP optical transceivers. Longer
distances can be supported via exten-
ders or repeaters or via converters
(such as the IBM System Storage
SAN18B-R router) which translate Fibre
Channel Protocol (FCP) to Internet
Protocol (IP).
SAN16B-2 Express Model fabric
switches can also be used to connect
two locations to enable remote data
backup. An Information Lifecycle
Management (ILM) application such as
IBM Tivoli® Storage Manager (TSM)
which runs on a server in the produc-
tion site can write data to a tape sys-
tem at a remote location. The same
distance capabilities are available as for
the business continuity solution
described above.
Important characteristics
Easy to install and maintain
The SAN16B-2 Express Model includes
features designed to make it easy to
install and easy to maintain for system
administrators who have minimal expe-
rience with SAN components.
EZSwitchSetup wizard is an embedded
setup tool designed for novice users
to guide them through switch setup,
often in less than five minutes.
Advanced Web Tools (Web Tools EZ)
provides intuitive graphic switch man-
agement capabilities. Advanced
management functions are also
available.
Pay-as-you-grow scalability
The Ports on Demand feature is
designed to support scalable switch
upgrades. The Ports on Demand fea-
ture provides an activation key which
upgrades the switch in four-port
increments while helping avoid fabric
disruption. Small Form-factor Pluggable
(SFP) transceivers are also required to
connect additional links. The ability to
increase switch capacity while maintain-
ing service helps customers implement
a pay-as-you-grow strategy while mini-
mizing impact to applications.
High performance
The SAN16B-2 Express Model switch
provides 4 Gbps performance on all
ports (requires storage hardware that
supports 4 Gbps throughput). Each
port auto-negotiates to 4, 2 Gbps or
1 Gbps depending on the capabilities
of the device at the other end of the
fibre link. Performance up to 64 Gbps is
possible with 16-port configurations.
Network performance can be enhanced
with Inter-Switch Link (ISL) Trunking,
which combines up to 4 ports to pro-
vide a high-speed data path of up to
16 Gbps.
High-availability features
Small and medium-size businesses
require high-availability switch fabric
solutions. The SAN16B-2 Express
Model fabric switch uses advanced
application-specific integrated circuits
(ASICs) to help minimize the number of
internal components and thus improve
reliability. Hot-pluggable optical trans-
ceivers (SFPs) are designed to be
replaced without taking the switch
offline.