FibreChannel.pdfVIP

Chapter 15 Fibre Channel Mass Storage (FCMS) April 2002 Chapter 15 / Page 1 Chapter 15 Fibre Channel Mass Storage (FCMS) April 2002 Chapter 15 / Page 2 INDEX Fibre Channel Basics 3 Topologies 4 Point-to-Point (P2P) 4 Fabric 5 Arbitrated Loop 5 FC HBAs, Software and Patches 8 Fibre Channel Kernel Driver Tunables 10 Fibre Channel Addressing in HP-UX 12 Peripheral Device Addressing (PDA) 14 Logical Unit Adressing (LUN) 16 Volume Set Addressing (VSA) 18 Example: Private Loop with FC-SCSI Mux 21 Example: Private Loop versus Public Loop 23 Troubleshooting Utilities fcmsutil, tdutil, tdlist, tddiag 26 fcmsutil 26 tdutil, tdlist, tddiag 29 How to Replace Disks at Tachyon TL/TS/XL2 HBAs 29 Fibre Channel Storage Devices 31 Glossary 34 Additional Information 36 Chapter 15 Fibre Channel Mass Storage (FCMS) April 2002 Chapter 15 / Page 3 Fibre Channel Basics Fibre Channel is a communication protocol that has been developed to satisfy the needs of a growing demand for data throughput. The advantages are as follows: ? different channels and protocols over one physical interface ? high bandwidth (200MB/s or higher) ? flexible setup (topology) ? connections across great distances (a couple of kilometers) ? supports different speeds, media and connections generally spoken fibre channel combines the advantages of channel and networking technology. A channel is a limited, direct, structured and predictable mechanism for data transmission between a few participants. A channel is typically used in situations where a high transfer rate is needed (e.g. connection of peripheral devices like disks, tape drives, printer or workstations). Well known channel protocols are e.g. SCSI or HIPPI. Networks are non-structured and unpredictable. They are able to adapt automatically to changing environments and allow a higher number of participants. Hence a higher administration effort (mostly in software) is neccessary in order to establ