Vixel 9000 Series Installation & Configuration Guide CHAPTER 1 Introduction
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• Fabric Mode for automatic and transparent configuration of fabric topologies:
— Fabric log-in (FLOGI), Simple Name Server (SNS), and Registered State
Change Notification (RSCN).
— Fabric Shortest Path First (FSPF).
— Fabric Address Notification (FAN) for end devices to verify the validity of
all outstanding Exchanges and operating parameters before using them.
— Proactive device probing to ensure that all FC-4 types are registered in the
Simple Name Server (SNS) database. (Registration of FC-4 types makes
initiators aware of connected storage devices.) Probing occurs when FC-4
type registration has not been received within the expected time and consists
of sending a port login (PLOGI) and a process login (PRLI) to the device.
• Fabric (Public/Private) Mode for automatic and transparent configuration of
mixed topologies containing public initiators and private targets.
• Support of SNS commands (see “Supported SNS Commands” on page 65).
• World-Wide Name and Port-based zoning.
• Broadcast server to allow IP communication over Fibre Channel. (Supported for
multiple switches in Fabric Mode; communication occurs within the port’s
zone.) Host bus adapters (HBAs) can use the broadcast server to send Fibre
Channel messages to the fabric; for more information, see the HBA vendor
documentation.
• License keys for easy feature add-ons.
Topology Examples
Comparing your set of devices to the example topologies below can help you
predefine your topology.
Ensuring Fault-Tolerance
Network backbones, tightly coupled work centers, and other applications require
topologies that have fault-tolerance, high availability, reliability, and flexibility. For
these applications, connect switches together in a mesh topology. A fully meshed
topology is a web of inter-switch links (ISLs); each switch is directly connected to
every other switch. A partially meshed topology conserves ports by interconnecting
only the most essential and/or the highest-traffic segments. Failover redundancy is
created through these multiple ISLs, and the many available paths minimize the
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General