San Scaling And Routing; Switch Scaling - HP StorageWorks 4000/6000/8000 - Enterprise Virtual Arrays Reference Manual

SAN scaling and routing

This section describes two methods for increasing the size of SANs:
Increase the Fibre Channel switch capability within a fabric.
Connect independent fabrics using a Fibre Channel router, Virtual Fabrics with IFR, or VSANs
with IVR.

Switch scaling

The switches that make up fabrics define the fabric limits. This section describes the relationship
between switches.
Switch scaling limits
Adding ports to a fabric means increasing the number of switches in the fabric or increasing the
number of ports per switch. For large fabrics, adding ports may not be possible unless the limits for
total port count and total switch count are increased.
Each Fibre Channel switch product line has its own limits for total port count and switch count. You
must ensure that a new or modified SAN design complies with these limits.
NOTE:
Other limits, such as hop counts and link distances, also apply. For more information, see:
"H-series switches and fabric
"B-series switches and fabric
"C-series Fibre Channel and FCoE switches and fabric
"M-series switches and fabric
For a SAN design to meet the total port count and total switch count limits, the following configuration
restrictions are enforced:
The fabric size limit for total port or total switch count must not be exceeded.
The use of several small switches to reach a high total port count number is not acceptable if the
design exceeds the total switch count limit.
The use of several high-port-count switches is not acceptable if the design exceeds the total port
count limit.
For fabric configurations, HP defines the maximum supported port and switch counts.
Fabric services limits
Fabric services provide coordination between all switches in a fabric. Increasing fabric size increases
the overhead associated with coordination. Fabric services include:
Fabric Login Server
State Change
Notification Server
Name/Directory Server
Zone Server
Key Server
rules" on page 83
rules" on page 93
rules" on page 157
rules" on page 135
SAN Design Reference Guide 63