Datasheet

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
sixteen-port storage consolidation solu-
tion can support up to fifteen servers
with a single path to either disk or tape.
The FlexPort feature is designed to
enable a base switch to grow to thirty-
two ports, in eight port increments, 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 fourteen to thirty servers,
each with dual Fibre Channel adapters
cross-connected to redundant
SAN32M-2 switches which are cross-
connected to a dual-controller storage
system.
While the SAN32M-2 Express Model
can be the foundation of medium-sized
SANs, it can be configured to partici-
pate as a full member in a tier enter-
prise SAN with other members of the
IBM TotalStorage SAN m-type family.
This capability provides investment pro-
tection 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
easier 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 and
DS6000 series. Fibre Channel Storage
Area Networks (SANs) were developed
to provide efficient, high performance
access from many servers to many
storage devices.
While it is possible, in 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 the following
diagram.