HP 8/40 B Series ISL / Architecture

[andre80]

Good Day

I've got two question where i havent found the required information in san design reference guide nor on the brocade homepage. Hope someone here can help:

- How many Ports can be used for ISL's on a 8/40 Swich? I have found the information that max 8 ports can be trunked for an isl.. but im not interestet in trunking....  We think about to connect 5 switches to the 8/40 Core switch with 2 isl each... so is it possible to use 10 ports for isl?

- How is the architecture in this switch (asics). we have 5 port "groups" witch each 8 Ports on this swich. Are all those Port groups connected to the same Processor ? -> does it make sense to add two ils in each 8 port -group or does it not matter?

Thanks in advance

Andre

[Ivan Lyanguzov]

Andre,

There is no limit on E_Port count, you can use all ports of the switch for ISLs.

In 8/40 switch there is one ASIC.

If your do not use trunking, there is no difference on where you connect your ISLs.

Ivan.

[andre80]

hi ivan

many thanks for your fast reply... so all ports are identical... it does not mather where i connect the isl or the device ports... so there is no chance that port group 1 does fail and the other portgroups do work...?

thanks

andre

[Ivan Lyanguzov]

Andre,

Actually, there is minor difference: ports are physically wired to groups metal grids (sorry, don't know how to translate). So if you plug and unplug ports often, you theoretically can break this metal grid. However, I would not consider this as point of failure.

Ivan.

[andre80]

hi ivan

thanks again... so it is only a "physical" problem... not an electronical one?

regards

[Ivan Lyanguzov]

Andre,

No, as I said, there is only one ASIC, so electronically all ports are equivalent.

Ivan.

[andre80]

everyhting clear now ;-) thanks for your fast reply

have a good day

regards

andre