Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide 117
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Gateway links
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Gateway links
A gateway merges SANs into a single fabric by establishing point-to-point E_Port connectivity
between two Fibre Channel switches that are separated by a network with a protocol such as IP or
SONET.
Except for link initialization, gateways are transparent to switches; the gateway simply provides
E_Port connectivity from one switch to another. Figure 8 shows two separate SANs, A-1 and A-2,
merged together using a gateway.
FIGURE 8 Gateway link merging SANs
By default, switch ports initialize links using the Exchange Link Parameters (ELP) mode 1. However,
gateways expect initialization with ELP mode 2, also referred to as ISL R_RDY mode. Therefore, to
enable two switches to link through a gateway, the ports on both switches must be set for ELP mode 2.
Any number of E_Ports in a fabric can be configured for gateway links, provided the following
guidelines are followed:
• All switches in the fabric use the core PID format, as described in “Configuring a link through a
gateway” on page 118.
• The switches connected to both sides of the gateway are included when determining
switch-count maximums.
• Extended links (those created using the Extended Fabrics licensed feature) are not supported
through gateway links.
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