4/8 SAN Switch Management IP Address and FCIP Address

[CA896460]

We've set up a new SAN with the MSA1500 SAN Starter Kit. We've set up a new VLAN for the management IP address for the SAN switch. What should the FCIP address be? I'm assuming it should be on the same subnet as the regular IP address to telnet/http to the switch...?

[Uwe Zessin]

FCIP? Watch out - that acronym means something completely different.

The "Fibre Channel IP Address" MUST NOT be in the same subnet like the reqular LAN interface! This can kill all your management functions.

You only need it if you want to reach the management function of other switches through a Fibre Channel link. In that case one of the switches acts as a router between the LAN and the Fibre Channel links. It is not required if you have only one Fibre Channel switch or can reach all switches via LAN.

[CA896460]

So, I should leave it 0.0.0.0 as it is the only SAN switch at the site...? Also, what about if I wanted to connect to another SAN in another site with something like FCIP and do LUN mirroring? I'm assuming I'd need the B-Series MP Router to do so and that the switches cannot do something like this natively...?

[Uwe Zessin]

Yes, with only one switch I would leave it at 0.0.0.0

Even if you are running FCP, you don't need to set the "Fibre Channel IP Address" as it is only used to route management traffic over Fibre Channel links.

You are correct: a simple B-Series Fibre Channel switch cannot do FCIP - you do need a gateway, the MPR for example.