Installation guide

Planning

Selecting a Test Architecture

When planning to install a converged network, it is important to choose both Fibre Channel and traditional

Ethernet-based traffic flows. Combining a test SAN infrastructure and a test LAN infrastructure is often the

easiest and most available option for a pilot project. Alternatively, a critical business application test system can

closely simulate a production environment. The architecture you choose to start with must demonstrate that a

converged network improves efficiency and performance in your environment. You will need to substitute your

own equipment and modify the installation process accordingly.

Organizational Ownership Fibre Channel/Storage, Ethernet/Networking

A critical factor for successfully implementing a converged data center fabric is the stability of network and storage

management practices. Cooperation between the system, network, and storage management teams is important in

configuring the converged data center fabric.

Where and How to Deploy

A unified fabric has two components:

 10Gb Ethernet switches that support Data Center Bridge (DCB) and FCoE—These switches support the

connection of traditional Ethernet and Fibre Channel infrastructures. These switches are known as top-of-rack

(TOR) switches, implementing DCB and encapsulating Fibre Channel frames into Ethernet frames for

transport over 10Gb Ethernet media.

 10Gb Converged Network Adapters that support both Ethernet LAN and Fibre Channel SAN over 10Gb

Ethernet media—These adapters replace the NIC and Fibre Channel host bus adapter, and connect to a DCB-

enabled 10Gb Ethernet switch.

Currently, a Converged Network Adapter must always be connected to a switch that has DCB. There are two types

of switches that have DCB: a DCB switch and an FCoE switch. The DCB switch has enhanced Ethernet support,

but does not have Fibre Channel forwarder (FCF) capabilities and does not support the conversion of Fibre

Channel frames to FCoE frames. A DCB switch supports converging Ethernet-based protocols, but does not

support Fibre Channel protocols. The DCB switch requires an external device to manage Fibre Channel and FCoE

functions. An FCoE switch supports both DCB and Fibre Channel.

There are three ways to connect Fibre Channel storage to a unified fabric:

 Converged Network Adapter > FCoE switch > Fibre Channel switch > Fibre Channel storage

The adapter connects to the FCoE switch with Ethernet infrastructure, and the FCoE switch connects to

storage through a Fibre Channel switch. This is the most common implementation in today's data centers

because the Fibre Channel switch and SAN storage are typically already in place.

 Converged Network Adapter > DCB switch > FCF > Fibre Channel switch > Fibre Channel storage

The DCB switch requires an external device to provide the FCF function to the attached Fibre Channel

storage. This approach is not as common because most data centers do not have an FCF device, and they will

acquire an FCoE switch to connect to their Fibre Channel Infrastructure.