A Metasan With Interfabric Links - HP AA979A - StorageWorks SAN Switch 2/8V Administrator's Manual

fabric to another—over the backbone or edge fabric through this virtual domain—without merging the
two fabrics. Translate phantom domains are sometimes referred to as "translate domains," or "xlate
domains." If a B-Series MP Router blade is attached to an edge fabric using an EX_Port, it will create
translate phantom domains in the fabric corresponding to the imported edge fabrics with active LSANs
defined. If you import devices into the backbone fabric, then a translate phantom domain is created in
the backbone device (in addition to the one in the edge fabric).
If you lose connectivity to the edge fabric due to link failures or the IFL being disabled (for example, by
issuing the portDisable command from the switch in the attached fabric) translate phantom domains
remain visible. This prevents unnecessary fabric disruptions caused by translate phantom domains
repeatedly going offline and online due to corresponding IFL failures. To remove the translate phantom
domain in the backbone, disable all EX_Ports or VEX_Ports through which the translate phantom
domain was created.
Figure 8 shows a metaSAN with a backbone consisting of one 400 MP Router connecting hosts in
Edge Fabric 1 and 3 with storage in Edge Fabric 2 and the backbone through the use of LSANs. A
device is shared between:
• The backbone and Edge Fabric 1
• Edge Fabric 1 and Edge Fabric 2
• Edge Fabric 2 and Edge Fabric 3
Figure 9 shows a metaSAN consisting of three edge fabrics connected through a 4/256 SAN Director
containing an B-Series MP Router blade with interfabric links.
Figure 9

A metaSAN with interfabric links

Host
Edge
fabric 1
E_Port
Fibre
IFL
Channel
switch
Target
Edge
fabric 2
E_Port
IFL
EX_Ports
4/256 SAN Director with
B-Series MP Router blade
Target
Edge
fabric 3
E_Port
Fibre
Long Distance IFL
Channel
switch
Fabric OS 5.2.x administrator guide 201
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