brocade switch 09-m6-b series fabric rules

7/28/2019 Brocade Switch 09-M6-B Series Fabric Rules

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2006 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

The information contained herein is subject to change without notice

B-Series SwitchesFabric Rules

Module 6


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Rev. 6.21 HP Restricted 1

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 Storage products HP-UX

OpenVMS

Tru64 UNIX

Linux

Microsoft Windows

VMware ESX

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 switchrecommendations

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 Description

1 A maximum of 56 switches, 2,560 total ports, and 2,300 user ports in asingle 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

2 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.

3 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

Routin Traffic cha ter in the Fabric OS 5.x administrator uide.


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4 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

5 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

7 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 Description

8 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

9 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

10 Maximum of seven hops (eight switches) between any two

communicating devices

The StorageWorks SAN Switch Integrated 32 or 64 and the HPSureStore FC Switch 6164 add a maximum of two hops between

devices, depending on the device-to-switch connections and device-to-

device access

11 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 fourswitches




12

StorageWorks SAN Switch 2/8-V and 2/16-V support a maximum of twoswitches in a fabric by default

A license upgrade is available for fabrics with more than two switches

13 HP SureStore FC 1Gb/2Gb Entry Switch 8B and Compaq StorageWorks

SAN Switch 8-EL support one E_Port connection

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Compaq Fibre Channel Storage Switch 8 and Storage Switch 16 supporta 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

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 usingan 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 FC-

AL switch with access to RA4000/4100 storage systems

HP does not support attachment to 2Gb/s or 4Gb/s switches


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MP Router fabric rules (1 of 2)Rule Description

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

2 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

3 Devices connected to edge fabrics are for local and routed access

only and cannot be routed through an LSAN to an iSCSI port on theMP Router

4 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.



MP Router fabric rules (2 of 2)Rule Description

5 Fibre Channel SAN boot or iSCSI server boot through the MP Router is notsupported

6 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 ofstandard 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

7 Routing between B-Series secured and non-secured edge fabrics is

supported using Secure Fabric OS; requires MP Router firmware 7.4 orlater

8 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

MP R Fib Ch l d i



MP Router Fibre Channel storage deviceconnectivity



MP Router hop count

MP Router with seven hops



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



Front and translate domains

Front and translate domains



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 PIDparameter 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 continuewithout 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 unitdefinitions 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



Zoning limits and enforcement

For 4Gb/s and 2Gb/s SAN fabric switches

Avoid transitions to soft zoning in a hardware-enforced zoningenvironment

B-Series switches allow 64 SID entries maximum for each

quad

If you exceed this limit, the affected ports transition from hardto 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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brocade switch 09-m6-b series fabric rules

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