Redundant Fcip Network Structure Example; Using Fcip To Encapsulate Fc Packets; Fcip Impact On Existing Iscsi Configurations; Mpx200 High-Availability Configuration With Fully-Redundant Long-Distance Links - HP StorageWorks MPX200 User Manual

Redundant FCIP network structure example

In a high-availability FCIP configuration, pairs of MPX200 routers and two independent IP networks
provide full redundancy. Loss of connectivity through one of the IP networks does not result in a loss
of connectivity between the fabrics.
The redundant configuration can be either a single HP StorageWorks MPX200 Multifunction Router
1 GbE Base Chassis with an HP StorageWorks MPX200 Router 1 GbE Upgrade Blade, or an HP
StorageWorks MPX200 Multifunction Router 10 1 GbE Base Chassis with an HP StorageWorks
MPX200 Router 10 1 GbE Upgrade Blade. Note that FCIP is currently supported only on MPX200
1 GbE ports. See
Figure 78 MPX200 high-availability configuration with fully-redundant long-distance links
.

Using FCIP to encapsulate FC packets

With FCIP, gateways transport FC frames over an IP network. From the perspective of the local and
remote fabrics, the FC devices accessed through the gateways appear to be part of one unified fabric.
This is possible because FC traffic is carried over the IP network in such a way that the FC fabric and
all FC devices on the fabric are unaware of the presence of the IP network. Once configured, FCIP
instances on each gateway become active and establish their connectivity through the IP network.
The FC devices in the local fabric access the FC devices in the remote fabric using FC frames. The
FC frames are encapsulated in IP packets by the local gateway and then transmitted to the remote
gateway. The remote gateway strips the IP packet data and passes only the FC frames to the remote
FC devices. The gateways deployed for FCIP are configured to use TCP, which uses standard TCP
flow control and error recovery algorithms.

FCIP Impact on existing iSCSI configurations

This guide includes samples of FCIP and iSCSI configurations to illustrate some of the many possible
configurations available. Despite the number of permutations, there are really only two basic FCIP
configurations: a dedicated FCIP blade and a shared iSCSI/FCIP blade.
A dedicated MPX200 blade running only FCIP does not have any impact on a dedicated MPX200
blade running iSCSI. There is, however, an impact and possibly changes required for existing MPX200
iSCSI configurations when FCIP is added to the same blade. Also consider this possibility when
planning a new iSCSI/FCIP mixed blade configuration.
118 MPX200 FCIP
Figure 78.