1
1-2
McDATA® Sphereon 3032 and 3232 Fabric Switches Installation and Service Manual
General Information
Switch Description
The Sphereon 3032/3232 Switches provide Fibre Channel
connectivity through 32 ports. Switch ports operate at either 1.0625
(Sphereon 3032) or 2.125 (Sphereon 3232) gigabits per second (Gbps),
and can be configured as:
• Fabric ports (F_Ports) to provide direct connectivity for up to 24
switched fabric devices.
• Expansion ports (E_Ports) to provide interswitch link (ISL)
connectivity to fabric directors and switches.
The switch can be installed on a table or desk top, mounted in an
FC-512 Fabricenter™ equipment cabinet or in any standard
equipment rack.
Multiple switches and the management server communicate on a
local area network (LAN) through one or more 10/100 Base-T
Ethernet hubs. One or more 24-port Ethernet hubs are optional and
can be ordered with the switch. Up to three hubs are daisy-chained as
required to provide additional Ethernet connections as more switches
(or other McDATA managed products) are installed on a customer
network.
The switches provide dynamically switched connections for servers
and devices, supports mainframe and open-systems interconnection
(OSI) computing environments, and provides data transmission and
flow control between device node ports (N_Ports) as dictated by the
Fibre Channel Physical and Signaling Interface (FC-PH 4.3). Through
interswitch links (ISLs), the switch can connect additional switches to
form a Fibre Channel multiswitch fabric.
The switch provides connectivity for devices manufactured by
multiple original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). To determine if
an OEM product can communicate through connections provided by
the switch, or if communication restrictions apply, refer to the
supporting publications for the product or contact your McDATA
marketing representative
Switch
Management
Out-of-band (non-Fibre Channel) management access to McDATA
products is provided through an Ethernet LAN connection to a
switch front panel. The following out-of-band management access
methods are provided: