User`s manual
Table Of Contents
- Preface
- General Description
- Installation
- Introduction
- Unpack
- Place or Mount the Equipment
- Apply the IEC Class 1 Laser Information Label (If the installation is in Europe)
- Install GBICs
- Connect to AC Power
- Switch Logic Power Good LED
- Check the Power-On-Self-Test (POST) Results
- Cable Fibre Channel Devices to the Switch
- Configure the Chassis
- Configure the Ports
- Zoning
- Rack and Shelf Administration
- Operating the Switch
- Diagnostics/Troubleshooting
- Removal/Replacement Procedures
- Multi-Chassis Fabrics
- Reference Information
- QLogic Customer Support
- Index
Preliminary
Major Fibre Channel Port Features
SANbox-8 Fibre Channel Switch
Installer’s/User’s Manual 59008-03 Rev. A General Description 1-3
• You may populate 2 to 8 ports with GBICs. The choice of ports and GBICs is
yours.
• The Switch has been validated with GBICs that support a variety of intercon-
nection media. Refer to “Fibre Channel Ports” on page 1-17 for more infor-
mation.
Fabric Port Overview
All ports on the SANbox-8 chassis are “Loop-aware” fabric ports. That is, they are
ports that are able to discover through the Fibre Channel Fabric Login process,
whether they should function as an F_Port (communicating with an N_Port) or as
an FL_Port (communicating with an Node Loop Port (NL_Port)). Fabric ports
connect to Public devices that conform to the Fibre Channel Standards.
Switch management allows you to force a fabric port to function as an F_Port.
Refer to the Switch Management manual.
The attributes of F_Ports and FL_Ports are described in the Fibre Channel
Standards.
Segmented Loop Port (SL_Port) Overview
You may use Switch management to configure any or all ports on the SANbox-8
chassis as Segmented Loop ports (SL_Ports). SL_Ports connect to devices which
conform to the Fibre Channel-Private Loop SCSI Direct Attach (FC-PLDA)
standard. SL_Ports allow you to divide these Private Loops into multiple segments
which may communicate through the Switch as though they were all part of the
same private loop.
A Segmented Loop has greater performance than an un-segmented loop because a
Segmented Loop can have multiple concurrent frame transfers (one per loop
segment) while an un-segmented loop can have only one.
Figure 1-2 shows a possible topology of a Segmented Loop. In this figure, there are
three distinct loop segments that have been linked together (placed in the same
segmented loop zone) by the Switch as a single Segmented Loop. This means that
all three loop segments share the same address space (same set of Arbitrated Loop
Physical Addresses (AL_PAs). All devices on the Segmented Loop can see all
other devices as though they were attached to their local loop segment.