Interoperable, Heterogeneous Switch Fabrics; Third-Party Switch Support; San Performance Considerations; Heterogeneous Switches In The Same Fabric - HP StorageWorks 4000/6000/8000 - Enterprise Virtual Arrays Reference Manual

Interoperable, heterogeneous switch fabrics

An interoperable, heterogeneous switch fabric can contain different series of switches.
the switch combinations.
Table 87 Heterogeneous switches in the same fabric
Heterogeneous switch
combinations
C-series and B-series
C-series and M-series
M-series and B-series
The documents referenced in
http://www.hp.com/go/SDGManuals
NOTE:
HP does not support MSA1000 storage systems (with or without the MSA SAN Switch 2/8) or
MSA1500 storage systems in interoperable, heterogeneous switch fabric configurations.

Third-party switch support

HP Services offers support for certain third-party switches if you purchase third-party support through
Multivendor Environment Services. See the following website for more information:
http://h20219.www2.hp.com/services/cache/125951-0-0-225-121.html
HP Services also offers support for multivendor SANs. HP provides integrated hardware and software
support with proactive problem prevention and 24x7 assistance.

SAN performance considerations

The following SAN components affect SAN application performance:
Host CPUs
Fibre Channel HBAs
SAN topology and the number of fabrics
I/O transfer sizes and usage patterns
RAID controllers
Disk configuration
Fabric interoperability: Merging fabrics based on C-series and B-series Fibre
Channel switches application notes
Fabric interoperability: Merging fabrics based on C-series and M-series Fibre
Channel switches application notes
Fabric interoperability: Merging fabrics based on M-series and B-series Fibre
Channel switches application notes
Table 87 are available on the HP SAN Infrastructure website:
Reference
SAN Design Reference Guide
Table 87 lists
179