Introduction; Terminology - Brocade Communications Systems 1606 Manual

DATA CENTER
I
NTRODUCTION
The lack of good cable management impacts serviceability and availability of the SAN. A good cable
management solution provides customers with the ability to dynamically scale and adapt to changes in their
IT infrastructure while minimizing required service time. This document provides customers deploying high
density solutions with general guidelines for proper cable management.
The demand for high density solutions are increasing as the need for the following grows:
•
Reduced footprint, energy efficiency (minimize cable impact on air flow)
•
Server consolidation and virtualization
•
Storage consolidation and virtualization
The demands are resulting in:
• Highly utilized racks minimizing the foot print
•
Increased cables per rack
This guide describes:
•
Overview of the FC8-64 high density FC port blade
•
Challenges with unstructured high density port solutions
•
Structured high density cable management solutions based on LC and MPO/MTP
•
Reference configuration for 256 port LC and 512 port MPO/MTP solutions
• Part numbers for cables and patch panels and vendor contact information
NOTE: For complete details on data center cabling practices, refer to the Best Practices Guide: Cabling the
Data Center (PN: GA-BP-036-01). For additional FC8-64 and mSFP hardware details, refer to the Brocade
DCX Backbone Hardware Reference Manual or the Brocade DCX-4S Backbone Hardware Reference
Manual.

Terminology

Here are some common terms used in this best practices guide.
Term Description
mSFP Transceiver A narrower version of the standard 8Gb transceiver.
mSFP Cable A fiber cable with a narrower LC connector.
LC Lucent Coupler
MPO/MTP Industry acronym for Multi-fiber Push-On connector; MTP is a trademarked name and is synonymous with MPO.
Patch Cord Trunked cable with multiple fiber cables; commonly found in 12 or 24 fiber versions
RU Rack Unit (4.4 centimeters/1.75 inches)
NOTE: In this document, the terms MPO and MTP are used interchangeably and represent MPO and MTP
connections.
Brocade DCX Cable Management
BEST PRACTICES GUIDE
patch panels
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