SAN and Network Hubs

[BEN WRIGHT]

Hello there
Just a question I would like to post if anybody has an answer it would be appreciated or point me in the right direction.

With the way SAN's are set up and the hardware they need to operate do any of the vendors make a Switch that can be used for connecting the machines to the SAN and to the Network at the same time. It seems to me that this little switch / hub is essentially doing the same thing for both modes of traffic?

Best regards

Ben

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Ben, they can do, but... There are many things play: hardware, firmware, software. If hardware can work, then firmware should support it, and software should be able to manage it.
You may find this type of device which can do everything, but usually they are splitted to 'networking' and 'mass storage'.
Eugeny

[Vincent Fleming]

I haven't seen any manufacturer offer a switch that does both gige and Fibre Channel at the same time.

Although they use the same infrastructure (cabling and GBICs), the protocols are sufficiently different that they must be difficult to handle in the same switch.

I'm sure that we'll see something like what you're asking for someday, but we're just not there yet.

[Michael Lampi]

There are Layer 1 (physical layer) switches available that do just this sort of switching.

There are also switches that will do fibrechannel plus FC-IP switching.

However, you are almost certainly looking for a fibrechannel + optical GigE layer 2 or above switch. As far as I know, such a beastie is not available.