B-Series Switches Fabric Rules

Module 6

2006 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice

Objectives
Explain the fabric rules that apply to B-Series switches in a SAN environment Explain the database size rules for B-Series switches Describe zoning enforcement guidelines for B-Series switches and the MP Router

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Operating systems and storage products

Operating systems
HP-UX OpenVMS Tru64 UNIX Linux Microsoft Windows VMware ESX

Storage products
XP10000/12000 XP128/1024 XP48/512 VA7100/7110/7400/7410 EVA3000/4000/5000/6000/8000 EMA12000/16000 MA6000/8000 MSA1000/1500 RA4000/4100/8000 Continuous Access EVA Continuous Access XP

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Primary management switch recommendations

Designate one switch in the fabric as the primary management switch Configure the primary management switch in the fabric as the preferred principal switch How a principal switch is assigned can vary in a fabric

The primary management switch is used by Fabric Manager as the main access point to that fabric Fabric time synchronization is available with Fabric OS 2.6.1, 3.1, 4.1, and later

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Fabric rules for B-Series switches (1 of 4)

Rule
1

Description
A maximum of 56 switches, 2,560 total ports, and 2,300 user ports in a single fabric with 4/8, 4/16, 4/32, 4/256, 2/16N, 2/32, 2/64, or 2/128 switches using 4.4x/5.x (or later) firmware A maximum of 34 switches and 1,280 total ports in a single fabric with switches using 2.6.1x, 3.x, 4.x, and 5.x firmware A fabric that contains 2/8 or 2/16 2 Gb/s switches only, or 2/8 or 2/16 and 4 Gb/s switches only, supports a maximum of 1,200 user ports With security enabled, the fabric supports a maximum of 728 user ports A fabric that contains 1Gb/s switches using 2.6.1x or later firmware supports a maximum of 728 user ports With security enabled, the fabric supports a maximum of 500 user ports.

StorageWorks 4/256 SAN Director

Maximum of 20 chassis per fabric with all 16-port Fibre Channel blades; maximum of 10 chassis with all 32-port Fibre Channel blades For all configurations the maximum total port count must not exceed 2560 Each chassis adds one switch to the fabric switch count if it is configured as one domain. This switch does not support port-based routing. See the

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Fabric rules for B-Series switches (2 of 4)

Rule
4

Description
StorageWorks 2/128 SAN Director
Maximum of 20 chassis per fabric Each chassis adds one switch to the fabric switch count if it is configured as one domain

StorageWorks Core Switch 2/64

Maximum of 20 chassis per fabric

Each chassis contains two logical switches, adding two switches to the fabric switch count 6 In a fabric that contains the Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch for HP p-Class BladeSystem, StorageWorks SAN Switch 4/8, 4/16, 4/32, 2/32, Core Switch 2/64, SAN Director 2/128 or 4/256, the Core switch addressing mode is required on all other switches in that fabric Within a fabric, assign a unique domain ID number and a unique world wide name (WWN) to each switch All switch configuration parameters for the same switch models must be the same Do not configure any switches with a domain ID of 8, which is reserved for HP-UX
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Fabric rules for B-Series switches (3 of 4)

Rule
8

Description
Switch data routing policies Different switch models support different routing polices For most configurations, the default routing policy is optimal, and provides the best performance StorageWorks SAN Switch Integrated 32 or 64 and HP SureStore FC Switch 6164 supports a maximum of four chassis per fabric Each chassis adds six switches to the fabric switch count The maximum fabric configuration is four chassis with ten additional SAN switches Maximum of seven hops (eight switches) between any two communicating devices The StorageWorks SAN Switch Integrated 32 or 64 and the HP SureStore FC Switch 6164 add a maximum of two hops between devices, depending on the device-to-switch connections and device-todevice access StorageWorks SAN Switch 2/8-EL and 2/16-EL support a maximum of four switches in a fabric by default A license upgrade is available to support fabrics with more than four switches HP Restricted

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Fabric rules for B-Series switches (4 of 4)

Rule Description

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StorageWorks SAN Switch 2/8-V and 2/16-V support a maximum of two switches in a fabric by default A license upgrade is available for fabrics with more than two switches
HP SureStore FC 1Gb/2Gb Entry Switch 8B and Compaq StorageWorks SAN Switch 8-EL support one E_Port connection Compaq Fibre Channel Storage Switch 8 and Storage Switch 16 support a maximum of four switches in fabrics with these switches only, or in fabrics with these switches and any 1Gb/s SAN switches VC Encoded Address Mode must be set for 1Gb/s SAN switches

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These switches are not supported in fabrics with 2Gb/s or 4Gb/s switches
15 Compaq FC-AL Switch 8 supports cascaded attachment in a fabric using an FL_Port on a Compaq SANSwitch8,SAN Switch 16, SAN Switch 8-EL, or SAN Switch 16-EL In this configuration, HP supports only servers directly attached to the FCAL switch with access to RA4000/4100 storage systems HP does not support attachment to 2Gb/s or 4Gb/s switches
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Database size rules for B-Series switches

Rule
1

Description
Secure Fabric OS With security enabled in a fabric, the maximum security database size is as follows:
If the fabric contains any 1Gb/s switches, the maximum size is 32KB, with only16KB active The maximum number of Device Connection Control (DCC) policies is 620 If the fabric contains 2Gb/s or 4Gb/s switches only, the maximum size is 128KB, with 64KB active

Advanced Zoning The maximum zoning database size is as follows:

If the fabric contains 1Gb/s switches with 2.6.1x (or later) firmware, the database must not exceed 96KB If the fabric contains 2Gb/s or 4Gb/s switches with 3.3.x/4.4.x (or later) firmware, the database must not exceed 256KB

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MP Router fabric rules (1 of 2)

Rule
1

Description
All configurations must use the default settings for R_A_TOV (10000 seconds) and E_D_TOV (2000 seconds)

Devices connected directly to the MP Router or the backbone fabric are for iSCSI access only and cannot be routed through an LSAN zone to an edge fabric
Devices connected to edge fabrics are for local and routed access only and cannot be routed through an LSAN to an iSCSI port on the MP Router For the MP Router, you can configure a port as a Fibre Channel E_Port, EX_Port (Fibre Channel Routing), GbE iSCSI, or GbE FCIP Traffic switching is supported between the following types of ports: Fibre Channel and Fibre Channel Routing Fibre Channel and iSCSI Fibre Channel and FCIP Traffic switching between other port combinations is not supported. This applies to port combinations on the same platform or independent platforms. For example, traffic from an iSCSI initiator connected to an MP Router cannot be routed to an EX_Port on the same router or independent router.

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MP Router fabric rules (2 of 2)

Rule
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Description
Fibre Channel SAN boot or iSCSI server boot through the MP Router is not supported For redundancy, HP recommends using a minimum of 2 EX_Ports (MP Router ISLs) for each fabric connected to the MP Router The number of EX_Ports required is based on the performance requirements for all devices shared by fabrics through the MP Router For initial settings, calculate the number of EX_Ports using a 5:1 ratio of standard ISLs or switch device ports to MP Router EX_Port ISLs; monitor port performance to determine if this ratio is acceptable based on usage For very high bandwidth requirements and applications, use a ratio of 3:1 or 1:1

Routing between B-Series secured and non-secured edge fabrics is supported using Secure Fabric OS; requires MP Router firmware 7.4 or later Routing between B-Series and M-Series edge fabrics supported; requires MP Router firmware 7.4 or later, B-Series firmware 5.x, 4.4x, 3.2.x, or 2.6.2x or later, and M-Series firmware 06.02.00-22 in Open Fabric mode Note: Continuous Access products are not supported in routed fabrics using both B-Series and M-Series edge fabrics

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MP Router Fibre Channel storage device connectivity

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MP Router hop count

MP Router with seven hops

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MP Router scalability terms

MP Router scalability
Front phantom domains
Individual EX_Port connections from the MP Router to the edge fabric

Translate phantom domains

Assigned to each fabric connected to the MP Router

Backbone fabric
The MP Router backbone fabric consists of at least one MP Router and includes all MP Routers and B-Series switches connected to the MP Router through E_Ports

Edge fabric
A fabric that is attached to an EX_Port on an MP Router

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Front and translate domains

Front and translate domains

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Core switch addressing mode

If you change the Core switch addressing mode for a fabric, consider: If a B-Series fabric contains a certain switches, the Core switch PID parameter bit must be set for all switches in the fabric All switches in the fabric must have the same Core switch PID parameter bit setting; otherwise, the fabric will segment For multifabric SANs, change the Core switch PID parameter bit setting on one fabric at a time, allowing SAN operations to continue without interruption The MP Router supports using different Core PID formats on different fabrics and routing frames between them HP-UX systems use the address bits to identify logical units; if you change the Core switch PID setting, change also the logical unit definitions and reboot all servers in the SAN If you add switches to a fabric in which the Core switch PID parameter bit is cleared, clear this bit on the new switches

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Zoning limits and enforcement

For 4Gb/s and 2Gb/s SAN fabric switches
Avoid transitions to soft zoning in a hardware-enforced zoning environment B-Series switches allow 64 SID entries maximum for each quad If you exceed this limit, the affected ports transition from hard to soft enforcement

Maintain data access as defined in your SAN design, but avoid configuring hosts and targets on the same quad

Configure each quad with members of the same zone Minimize zone entries by including only hosts and targets that communicate Use portzoneshow to display and verify the zoning status of each port
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Learning check

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