Cross connecting switches

[Tommy Gilchrist]

Folks

I'm moving from a reasonably simple fabric to a slightly more complex one and have a question about cross connecting switches.

The configuration will be two 2/16-EL and two 4/32 switches. The 2/16-ELs will be in one server room, the others in a second room with a single longwave link from each 2/16 to the corresponding 4/32

The question is, should I also cross connect the two 2/16s or the 4/32s or both to create a single fabric, hence simplifying management, zoning, etc.

The SAN design guide doesn't show this configuration that I can see. Is this simply not shown or is it not supported.

The SAN will consist of 1 * MA8000, 1 * EVA6000 and 1 * EVA8000. Hosts are a mixture of Windows 2000 and 2003 servers, all with dual path.

thanks

tommy

[Uwe Zessin]

Redundant (= two separate) fabrics are suggested for "high available" configurations. That means you don't have a single namespace for fabric services and zoning and can do maintenance on one fabric at a time.