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Re: MSL 6000 fiber connection

 
BRIAN SCHOENDORF
Occasional Contributor

MSL 6000 fiber connection

I have an HP MSL 6000, a two drive model, that I wish to hook up to a IBM server. I can get a SCSI controller card and use the scsi connections, but I was wondering about the fiber option which I do have on this library. I do not work with fiber much, but is it possible to just purchase an HBA card for the server and connect the two directly without having to go through a switch?

 

Thanks,

Brian

1 REPLY 1
thomasr
Respected Contributor

Re: MSL 6000 fiber connection

> Is it possible to just purchase an HBA card for the server and connect the two directly without having to go through a switch?

 

You should be able to do that -- it's often called direct connect Fibre.

Note that you won't see a performance benefit, and your backup application may require

you to purchase a more expensive drive license for Fibre Channel connected drives.  Make

sure you understand licensing issues before getting a possibly rude surprise.

The only real benefit of direct connect Fibre that I can think of is that you can run a longer

Fibre Channel cable than SCSI cable.

 

If you intend to put this library on a SAN so that it can be shared by multiple servers (each

directly writing to the library without having to go through a backup server), then you're

starting to get the benefit from the Fibre Channel connection.

 

The EBS Compatibility Matrix at http://www.hp.com/go/ebs has the list of supported HBAs,

operating systems, backup applications, firmware, patch levels, etc.

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