EMC Induction

Module 2

Fibre Basics

Objectives

Understand the main features of Fibre Channel

Understand the differences between Fibre Channel and SCSI

Identify cables, transceivers and connectors associated with Fibre Channel Look at the differences between point to point, arbitrated loop and switched fabric

What is Fibre Channel ?

A high performance Serial I/O Protocol

A paradigm for data communications as set out by the FCS An FC frame can carry SCSI, IP, ATM, FDDI etc payloads Runs over Copper or Fibre Optic Cables Dell EMC2 Only Support Fibre Optic Cables Communicates in point to point, looped or fabric environment Dell | EMC2 utilises a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) within the enclosure

Fibre Channel

SCSI

IP

FDDI

ATM

SCSI vs Fibre Channel

Feature
Maximum number of devices on a single bus
Max Cable Length Termination Throughput Device discovery

SCSI
15
12M (U4) Active or Passive 320MBps (U4) Bus Reset

Fibre Channel
126
500M (MM) 10Km (SM) Automatic 200-400MBps Full Duplex Instant

Cables
Fibre Channel uses two types of cable

Copper [metal - electrical]

Inexpensive Easy to manufacture Subject to attenuation resulting in short distance use only Subject to EMI and Crosstalk Not seen on EMC SANs except for Loop expansion

Fibre Optic [glass light]

Expensive More complex manufacture Supports long distances Immune to EMI or Crosstalk Subject to attenuation [non electrical] but only over vast distances

Copper Cables

Copper supports 3 different connectors:

High Speed Serial Data Connector (HSSDC & HSSDC-2)

Clariion CX arrays use the HSSDC cables for loop expansion

DB9
Seen mostly in DPE connections on PV SAN

HSSDC DB9 HSSDC2

What is "Fibre Optics"? And a short history.

It's the communications technology that works by sending signals down hair thin strands of glass Fibre (and sometimes plastic Fibre.) It began about 30 years ago in the R&D labs (Corning, Bell Labs, ITT UK, etc.) and was first installed in Chicago, IL, USA in 1976.

By the mid-80s, Fibre was replacing all the telco copper, microwave and satellite links. In the 90s, CATV discovered Fibre and used it first to enhance the reliability of their networks, a big problem. Along the way, the discovered they could offer phone and Internet service on that same Fibre and greatly enlarged their markets.
Computers and LANs started using Fibre about the same time as the telcos. Industrial links were among the first as the noise immunity of Fibre and its distance capability make it ideal for the factory floor. Mainframe storage networks came next, the predecessors of today's Fibre SANs (storage area networks.) Other applications developed too: aircraft, ship and automobile data busses, CCTV for security, even links for consumer digital stereo! Today Fibre optics is either the dominant medium or a logical choice for every communication system.

Optical Cable

Optical cables consist of a glass core shielded by cladding

Cable can be either Single or Multi Mode

Optical Cable

Single mode cables can carry a signal up to 10 Km

Multi mode cables can carry a signal up to 500m 1Gbps or 250m with 2Gbps

Intermodal Dispersion

While glass is immune to EMI, It can suffer from attenuation. Using MM cables modes of light enter the core together but over long distances exit at different rates. This causes a weak and difficult to decode signal being received. This in turn causes errors and re-transmission requests, ultimately leading to poor performance or failed links This is due to highly angled bouncing patterns within the core, resulting in some signals getting absorbed by the cladding and also due to impurities in the glass itself. Well, what's the best way to get rid of Intermodal Dispersion?, easy, only allow one mode of propagation. So a smaller core size means higher bandwidth and greater distances.

Cable types

All optical cabling has identifying markings Chromatic Technologies / OFNR-FT4* / 50 / 125 / 554
Manufacturer / Type / Core size / cladding size / section of roll in meters

*riser rated cable for vertical runs

There is one type of - 9m There are 2 types of - 50m and 62.5m

SM cable

MM cable

DO NOT JOIN THEM TOGETHER [patch panel et al]

Light leakage

50m

62.5m

50m

fibre cables
Fibre cables can contain one or hundreds of fibres Fibre cables do not follow any colour standard, although

MM 50/62.5m cables are often orange, and SM 9m cables are often yellow

Typical array of optics

Cable Connections

Fibre Optic cables are available with 2 connectors

Subscriber Connector (SC) Lucent Connector (LC)

Style Small form Factor Allows High Density Connection

Sturdy connector

Little connector

Legacy Subscriber Connector

Commonly available Fibre cables/connections

Cable Care

Do not coil fibre cable tighter than 15 times its diameter Rule of thumb

Do not apply external pressure or kink the cable

It is not recommended to look down a fibre cable
OCF in LW transmission should correct this

Glass core is 9m wide[SM] compared with an 75m human hair

Keep the connectors CLEAN !

Dirt causes weird problems , most notably performance issues

Keep it Clean
With Fibre optics, our tolerance to dirt is near zero. Airborne particles are about the size of the core of SM Fibre- they absorb lots of light and may scratch connectors if not removed! Dirt on connectors is the biggest cause of scratches on polished connectors and high loss measurements!

Clean end-face

Skin oil contamination

Core obstruction

Transceivers
The interface between the device and the cable Dell | EMC configurations support Finisar GBICs Dell | EMC configurations support IBM, Infineon and Finisar SFPs Ethernet SFPs should not be used in FC switches

FC SW GBICs and SFPs can support 50m or 62.5m Transceiver can be one of 3 types Small Formfactor Plugable (SFP)

Media Interface Adapter (MIA)

Gigabit Interface Connector (GBIC)

Topologies

Point to Point

Arbitrated Loop
Switched Fabric

Port Types

Point to Point

Single connection between to devices

Full Duplex connection will allow 400MBps with a 2GB HBA

Arbitrated Loop

All devices are Daisy Chained together

Shared Bandwidth for Loop

Maximum 126 devices [private loop] + 1 for the switch [public loop] A device or link failure kills entire loop Dual loops employed for redundancy

Fairness algorithm prevents devices hogging bandwidth

Fibre Channel Drives

The Dell | EMC2 CX range only uses 12V fibre channel drives Dual ported hard drives add redundancy in two ways: Eliminates the disk/backplane connection as single point of failure Each port accesses a separate loop controlled by the storage processor on the array

Loop A

Loop B

Private loops in a Clariion

Port Bypass Circuits

LCC A
SPA

LCC B
SPB

Fabric

Functions like multiple point to point connections Devices connect to an Intelligent switch

Theoretically, a single fabric could connect up to 16 million nodes.

Most SANs use dual fabrics for redundancy

Fabric

HBA Support and Configuration

Examine HBA support

QLOGIC HBAs and SANblade manager

Emulex HBAs and Elxcfg/HBAnywhere management utility

What is an Host Bus Adapter?

Its a translation device, which converts one bus type to another Converts Fibre Channel to SCSI DellEMC2 use QLogic and Emulex HBAs

Host HBA to Storage Communication

Operating System SCSI

HBA Driver

Fibre Channel

Storage

Supported QLogic & Emulex Cards

QLA2310 / QLA2340 / QLA2342 /QLA2360[2] Managed by SANblade Manager

LP9002 / LP982 / LP9802 / LP10000 / LP1050 Managed by Elxcfg and HBAnywhere

PCIe

SANblade Manager

Java based configuration, diagnostic and analysis tool

Used for HBA management

Hot swap device wizard

Supports Firmware flash

Supports in and out of band management

Replaces QLConfig and QMSJ

SANBlade Manager Interface

ELXcfg
Host installed software for HBA driver and BIOS configuration

Use EMC presets

Setting the Topology

DAS Configuration should be set to Arbitrated Loop SAN Configuration should be set to Point to Point

HBAnywhere

Host installed management diagnostic and analysis tool Supports Firmware flash Supports in and out of band management

Initiators and Targets

Since a SAN is actually multiple virtual point to point circuits, a device has to initiate communication and another device has to be a target for communications. HBAs are normally initiators SPs are normally targets Switches are neutral to this process

Initiators and login

Login always starts from the initiator:

Initiator proposes the configuration it wants Target responds with what it will accept Initiator responds with what it will use
If initiator and target cannot agree, login will fail.

Review

Understand the main features of Fibre Channel

Understand the differences between Fibre Channel and SCSI

Identify cables, transceivers and connectors associated with Fibre Channel Look at the differences between point to point, arbitrated loop and switched fabric

Lab Exercise HBA Installation