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FCSA location and cable connections vary according to the various controller and Fibre Channel
disk module combinations.
Configurations for Fibre Channel Devices
Storage subsystems in NonStop S-series systems used a fixed hardware layout. Each enclosure
can have up to four controllers for storage devices and up to 16 internal disk drives. The controllers
and disk drives always have a fixed logical location with standardized location IDs of
group-module-slot. Only the group number changes as determined by the enclosure position in
the ServerNet topology.
However, the NonStop BladeSystems have no fixed boundaries for the Fibre Channel hardware
layout. Up to 60 FCSA (or 120 ServerNet addressable controllers) and 240 Fibre Channel disk
enclosures, with identification depending on the ServerNet connection of the IOAM and slot
housing in the FCSAs.
Configuration Restrictions for Fibre Channel Devices
These configuration restrictions apply and are invoked by Subsystem Control Facility (SCF):
• Primary and mirror disk drives cannot connect to the same Fibre Channel loop. Loss of the
Fibre Channel loop makes both the primary volume and the mirrored volume inaccessible.
This configuration inhibits fault tolerance.
Disk drives in different Fibre Channel disk modules on a daisy chain connect to the same
Fibre Channel loop.
• The primary path and backup Fibre Channel communication links to a disk drive should
not connect to FCSAs in the same module of an IOAM enclosure. In a fully populated system,
loss of one FCSA can make up to 56 disk drives inaccessible on a single Fibre Channel
communications path. This configuration is allowed, but only if you override an SCF warning
message.
• The mirror path and mirror backup Fibre Channel communication links to a disk drive
should not connect to FCSAs in the same module of an IOAM enclosure. In a fully populated
system, loss of one FCSA can make up to 56 disk drives inaccessible on a single Fibre Channel
communications path. This configuration is allowed, but only if you override an SCF warning
message.
Recommendations for Fibre Channel Device Configuration
These recommendations apply to FCSA and Fibre Channel disk module configurations:
• Primary Fibre Channel disk module connects to the FCSA F-SAC 1.
• Mirror Fibre Channel disk module connects to the FCSA F-SAC 2.
• FC-AL port A1 is the incoming port from an FCSA or from another Fibre Channel disk
module.
• FC-AL port A2 is the outbound port to another Fibre Channel disk module.
• FC-AL port B2 is the incoming port from an FCSA or from a Fibre Channel disk module.
62 System Configuration Guidelines