Tape Device Consolidation; Tape Drive Consolidation - HP StorageWorks 64 - SAN Director Switch Planning Manual

Tape Device Consolidation

Providing fabric connectivity for multiple FC-AL tape drives by attaching them
individually to a Fibre Channel director is likewise not a cost-effective solution. A
practical solution is to consolidate the tape drives on an inexpensive loop switch,
then connect the switch to a single director or edge switch E_Port.
Figure 34
connection to a director. Each tape drive has a 30-MBps bandwidth, therefore the
sum of the bandwidths of all consolidated servers is slightly less (90 MBps) than
the B_Port bandwidth of 1.0625 Gbps. Connecting another FC-AL tape drive to
the switch would exceed the B_Port capability and adversely impact
director-to-switch link performance. Other devices (such as servers) should not be
connected to a switch used for tape drive consolidation.
Figure 34: Tape drive consolidation
SAN High Availability Planning Guide
illustrates the consolidation of three tape drives through one B_Port
Planning Considerations for Fibre Channel Topologies
77