Using Remote Switch; Overview; Configuring A Remote Switch Fabric - HP StorageWorks 8B - FC Entry Switch User Manual

Using Remote Switch

Overview

Configuring a Remote Switch Fabric

Brocade Distributed Fabrics User's Guide
You can configure switches for use with Remote Switch through telnet or through Web
Tools. For information about using Web Tools to configure a switch, see the Web Tools
User's Guide.
This chapter provides the following information:
• Overview on page 3-1
• Configuring a Remote Switch Fabric on page 3-1
• Accessing the Switch Using Telnet on page 3-2
The Remote Switch feature operates in conjunction with a Fibre Channel to ATM
gateway. The gateway provides both a Fibre Channel physical interface functioning as an
E_Port and an ATM physical interface.
The gateway accepts Fibre Channel frames from one side of a Remote Switch fabric,
transfers them across a WAN using ATM protocol, and passes them to the other side of the
Remote Switch fabric.
In order to transfer frames across a WAN using ATM protocol, the Fibre Channel frames
(from 256 to 2112 bytes) must be broken into smaller pieces (53 byte ATM cells) at the
local end of the ATM network. Once they are broken into smaller pieces, they are
tunnelled inside ATM cells to be transmitted across the ATM network. At the remote end
of the ATM network, these pieces are reassembled back into complete Fibre Channel
frames and transmitted through the remote Fibre Channel interface.
To accomplish this, the gateway provides an E_Port interface that links to the switch
E_Port. Once the link between the two E_Ports is negotiated, the gateway E_Port moves
to pass-through mode and passes Fibre Channel traffic from the switch E_Port to the ATM
network.
A Remote Switch fabric requires two HP Brocade 2400/2800, FC 6164, FC Entry Switch
8B, FC Switch 8B, or FC 16B switches with identical configurations. A separate extended
fabric license is not required to operate the switch at distances much greater than 100
kilometers. This can be achieved when the switch operates over ATM. Performance is
limited to the ATM link - 1.55 to 155 Mb/s. Other FC-ATM devices such as ADVA
DiskLink do not require a remote switch. The DiskLink does not perform e_port
connections, but rather imports devices from a remote SAN and appears as an n_port
device in the local SAN.
Chapter
3
3-1