SAN Switch 2/16 Failsafe

[Jon_225]

Hi,

We have 2 x HP StorageWorks SAN switch 2/16V that are supposed to be set up in a redundant configuration for failsafe. Same story as always, they were setup some time ago so there is no one here who is knowledgeable about them and I have been tasked to figure out what we have.

Namely, I am wondering what should I be looking for to verify that the switches are in a proper failover configuration?
Switch 1

Fibre Channel IP Address: none
Fibre Channel Subnet Mask: none

Kernel: 5.4
Fabric OS: v3.1.0
Made on: Thu May 1 12:32:20 PDT 2003
Flash: Thu May 1 12:33:13 PDT 2003
BootProm: Tue Oct 30 10:24:38 PST 2001
List of Inter-Switch Links
Local Domain ID: 1

Local Port Domain Remote Port State
-------------------------------------------------------
No ISL Ports !!

List of Ports
switchName: Switch
switchType: 9.2
switchState: Online
switchMode: Native
switchRole: Principal
switchDomain: 1
switchId: fffc01
switchWwn: 10:00:00:60:69:51:a8:50
switchBeacon: OFF
Zoning: OFF

SWITCH 2

Fibre Channel IP Address: none
Fibre Channel Subnet Mask: none

Kernel: 5.4
Fabric OS: v3.1.0
Made on: Thu May 1 12:32:20 PDT 2003
Flash: Thu May 1 12:33:13 PDT 2003
BootProm: Tue Oct 30 10:24:38 PST 2001
List of Inter-Switch Links
Local Domain ID: 1

Local Port Domain Remote Port State
-------------------------------------------------------
No ISL Ports !!

List of Ports
switchName: Switch
switchType: 9.2
switchState: Online
switchMode: Native
switchRole: Principal
switchDomain: 1
switchId: fffc01
switchWwn: 10:00:00:60:69:51:aa:89
switchBeacon: ON
Zoning: OFF

[Uwe Zessin]

Full redundancy is usually accomplished by:

- running two fabrics

so both switches should not be connected to each other - else, you would create a single namespace.

- storage arrays and servers are connected to both fabrics

data can flow over one fabric or, depending on the exact hard- and software being used, both fabrics at the same time. Should one path become unavailable, the server will automatically switch to the remaining path(s).


- there is no setting on the switches to create a 'failsafe' configuration.

[James Muell]

And in a redundant Fabric, to enable the path failover automatically all hosts should have 2 HBAs and Multipathing software installed.