Preliminary
SANbox-16HA Fibre Channel Switch
Installer’s/User’s Manual 59005-03 Rev. A Multi-Chassis Fabrics 5-1
Section 5 Multi-Chassis Fabrics
Introduction
You may use SANbox Switch chassis as building blocks to build a multiple-chassis
fabric that will expand the number of user ports beyond the number in any one
chassis. Also, the cables used for interconnecting chassis in this multiple-chassis
fabric allow you to distribute the network in a campus environment, placing the
user ports near to where you need them. The actual cable length is given in
Appendix A Reference Information.
.
There are three major steps in building a multi-chassis fabric:
• Choose a topology.
• Cable the chassis into the selected topology.
• Configure the chassis and their associated user ports. Configuring the chassis
includes assigning stage types and chassis numbers. These topics are
described in this section. Configuring the user ports is the same as for a
single Switch chassis except you do it on a fabric-wide basis. These topics
are covered in the Switch Management manual.
The following paragraphs will lead you through the process of selecting a
topology, cabling the chassis, and configuring the chassis into a fabric.
NOTE:
This description assumes that all chassis are not SL Private Loop stage types. The
SL Private Loop stage type allows a reduced version of Cascade topology only.
Refer to “SL Private Loop Stage Type” on page 1-5 for more information.