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Preliminary
Multistage Topology
SANbox-16HA Fibre Channel Switch
Installer’s/User’s Manual 59005-03 Rev. A Multi-Chassis Fabrics 5-13
Multistage Bandwidth
Multistage topology has the best bandwidth. All T_Ports from each IO/T chassis
connect to all other IO/T chassis in the same number of chassis hops (three) no
matter how large the fabric is. Thus the useful interconnection bandwidth from
each IO/T chassis to any other IO/T chassis increases by 100MBs per T_Port. It is
possible in Multistage topology to devote half of the chassis bandwidth to T_Ports
thus providing as much as 800 MBytes per second bandwidth between any two IO/
T chassis.
Multistage Physical Distance Between Chassis
You may locate the CC chassis in the center of a circle with a radius of the
maximum cable length allowed by the selected GBICs and interconnection media.
Multistage Zoning
Sanbox Switch chassis support fabric-wide zones for all zone types. Broadcast
Zones and Name Server Zones require no special consideration in a Multistage
fabric. That is, you may assign these zones by port or by device. 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.
MKII Compatibility
SANbox switch fabrics support MKII chassis in Multistage topologies. The MKII
switches should be used only as IO/T chassis, while the SANbox switches can be
IO/T or cross-connect chassis. All chassis in a SANbox/MKII Multistage fabric
support only one active T_Port between any two chassis, though more may be
connected. Hard zoning and Name Server zoning by WWN are not supported in
SANbox/MKII fabrics.
NOTE:
Also, remember that mixing of topologies is not allowed. If the topology of the
chassis is Multistage, then the interconnection of the Hard Zones must also be
accomplished in Multistage topology.