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Preliminary
Introduction
SANbox-16HA Fibre Channel Switch
5-4 Multi-Chassis Fabrics 59005-03 Rev. A Installer’s/User’s Manual
Bandwidth Between Chassis
Each T_Port link between directly connected chassis contributes 100 megabytes of
bandwidth between those chassis. Devoting half of the chassis ports to T_Ports
may provide as much bandwidth between directly connected chassis as there is to
user ports on the chassis (no bottleneck between chassis). One T_Port interconnec-
tion between chassis is the minimum.
Fabric topology also affects bandwidth between chassis. In Mesh and Cascade
topologies, T_Ports are either distributed between adjacent chassis (Cascade
topology) or distributed among all chassis (Mesh Topology). Thus, in these topolo-
gies, the bandwidth is also distributed (divided among chassis).
In Multistage topology, all bandwidth is fully maintained between IO/T chassis. It
is therefore possible, in Multistage topology, to provide as much as 400 MBytes
per second bandwidth between any two 8-port IO/T chassis.
Cable Length
The maximum cable length between chassis depends on the type of interconnect
media (GBICs).
In Order Delivery
SANbox Switch chassis guarantee in order delivery with any number of T_Port
links between chassis.
Zoning in a Multi-Chassis Switch
SANbox Switch chassis support fabric-wide zones for all zone types. Broadcast,
and Name Server zones require no special consideration in a multi-chassis fabric.
T_Ports are not zoned.
Hard Zones, however, require zoned T_Port interconnections between chassis
which contain ports in the same Hard Zone. That is, if a particular Hard Zone is
distributed across chassis boundaries, each piece of that Hard Zone and its inter-
connecting T_Ports must be assigned to the same Hard Zone number. This makes
interconnections between pieces of the same Hard Zone much like the interconnec-
tion of chassis.
NOTE:
• Mixing of topologies is not allowed. If the topology of the chassis is Multi-
stage, then the interconnection of the Hard Zones must also be accomplished
in Multistage topology.
• Hard zoning and Name Server zoning by world wide name (WWN) are not
supported for SANbox/MKII fabrics.