Figure 68 A Metasan With Inter-Fabric Links - Brocade Communications Systems 53-1001763-02 Administrator's Manual

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Fibre Channel routing concepts
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458
Edge fabric
An edge fabric is a Fibre Channel fabric with targets and initiators connected through the
supported platforms by using an EX_Port or VEX_Port.
Backbone fabric
A backbone fabric is an intermediate network that connects one or more edge fabrics. In a
SAN, the backbone fabric consists of at least one FC router and possibly a number of
Fabric OS-based Fibre Channel switches (see
Inter-fabric link (IFL)
The link between an E_Port and EX_Port, or VE_Port and VEX_Port, is called an inter-fabric link
(IFL). You can configure multiple IFLs from an FC router to an edge fabric.
Figure 68 shows a metaSAN consisting of three edge fabrics connected through a Brocade
DCX with inter-fabric links.
Host
Host
Edge
Edge
fabric 1
E_Port
fabric 1
E_Port
Fibre
IFL
Fibre
Channel
IFL
Channel
switch
switch
FIGURE 68
A metaSAN with inter-fabric links
Logical SANs (LSANs)
An LSAN is defined by zones in two or more edge or backbone fabrics that contain the same
devices. You can create LSANs that span fabrics. These LSANs enable Fibre Channel zones to
cross physical SAN boundaries without merging the fabrics while maintaining the access
controls of zones.
An LSAN device can be a physical device, meaning that it physically exists in the fabric, or it can
be a proxy device.
Figure 69 on page 459 shows a metaSAN with a backbone consisting of one FC router
connecting hosts in edge fabrics 1 and 3 with storage in edge fabric 2 and the backbone fabric
through the use of LSANs. Three LSAN zones allow device sharing between the backbone
fabric and Edge Fabric 1, between Edge Fabric 1 and Edge Fabric 2, and between Edge Fabric
2 and Edge Fabric 3.
Figure 70
Target
Target
Edge
Edge
fabric 2
fabric 2
E_Port
E_Port
IFL
IFL
EX_Ports
EX_Ports
FC router
FC router
on page 460).
Target
Target
Edge
Edge
fabric 3
fabric 3
E_Port
E_Port
Fibre
Long distance IFL
Channel
Long distance IFL
switch
Fabric OS Administrator's Guide
Fibre
Channel
switch
53-1001763-02