Installation guide

5
Introduction
In the Unified Data Center Fabric Primer: FCoE and Data Center Bridging publication, a converged
network is defined as a unified data center fabric:
"A unified data center fabric is a networking fabric that combines traditional LAN and storage area network (SAN) traffic on the same physical network
with the aim of reducing architecture complexity and enhancing data flow and access. To make this work, the traditional Ethernet network must be
upgraded to become lossless and provide additional data center networking features and functions. In turn, the storage protocol must be altered to run
on Ethernet."
Demartek, Dennis Martin, Unified Data Center Fabric Primer: FCoE and Data Center Bridging, SearchNetworking.com, 2010.
Lossless means that no Fibre Channel packets are dropped.
This document describes how to install a converged fabric. This configuration demonstrates lossless
Ethernet and data center bridging (DCB), which includes priority flow control (PFC), enhanced
transmission selection (ETS), and data center bridging Exchange protocol (DCBX) for a Fibre Channel
and 10Gb Ethernet unified fabric.
Deploying an Oracle
®
converged fabric reduces the cost and complexity of maintaining multiple networks,
allows administrators to manage more data and larger storage networks with the same or fewer
resources, and controls rising power and cooling costs by eliminating redundant hardware. Additionally,
implementing an Oracle converged fabric allows the IT staff to support data growth and data center
sprawl.
With an Oracle converged fabric, standard TCP/IP and Fibre Channel traffic share the same high-speed
10 Gb/s Ethernet wire, resulting in cost savings through reduced adapter, switch, cabling, power, cooling,
and management requirements. Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) has rapidly gained market
acceptance because it delivers excellent performance, reduces data center total cost of ownership (TCO),
and protects current data center investments. An Oracle converged fabric with FCoE preserves existing
investments in Fibre Channel and Ethernet while providing Enhanced Ethernet for unified data
networking. Implementing an Oracle converged fabric enables businesses to achieve up to a 150%
performance improvement over 4Gb Fibre Channel, reduce capital expenditures by reducing server and
media costs, and deliver up to a 33% space savings over a four-year period. The following figure
illustrates the basic efficiency from consolidation.
FIGURE 1 ILLUSTRATION OF EFFICIENCY OF CONVERGING