Does FC60 support Fabric mode

[Jawed Akhtar]

We have fc60 and VA7400 configured in campus clustering and are being mirrored through fibre switches.
I want to know whether FC60 support fabric mode. THe storage card is A5158A, and I think the card support fabric mode.

Thanks in Advance.
Jawed Akhtar

[Bharat Katkar]

Jawed we have used FC60 2 years before and was connected in a Arbitrated Loop with other two server and a Fibre HUB.
I am not sure about the port of the FC60 but it supports FCAL but doubt about Fabric.

You can check the port of FC60, if it is F/NL_port then it is capable of getting connected to both FCAL as well as FAbric. In case if it is only NL_port then it is FCAL capable only.
That is what i can tell you.

[Jawed Akhtar]

Hi Bharat Katkar,
How could I check the port. Are you talking about the Fiber Port of FC60 if so then two ports says
1. J3 Fiber Host BD1
2. J4 Fibre Host BD2

REgd
Jawed

[Bharat Katkar]

Do you have FC60 Manual? May be you will be able to find some info there. !!

I am looking into it, i will let you know immediately as soon as i get it.

Regards,

[Bharat Katkar]

Jawed,
You will find FC60 User Guide on this link below:
http://search.hp.com/gwuseng/query.html?col=hpcom+ccen+ccenfor&qt=FC+60+Storage&la=en

Hope that helps

[Bharat Katkar]

Jawed It only talks about Abritrated Loop and now it is almost clear that it doesn't support Fabric Topology.

All the best.

[Jawed Akhtar]

Hi Bharat,
THanks but I have gone through FC60 user guide, but I cant find clearly whether fc60 support Fabric mode.

REgd
Jawed

[Bharat Katkar]

Yes that's right jawed and hence i am saying it doesn't support Fabric Mode as i was doubting it right from the begining.
Regards,

[Arend Lensen]

It's not supported but works fine.
Decide yourself what to do but there are no problems when using Fabric login.
Regards,
Arend

[Jawed Akhtar]

Hi Arend,
Tha is what I was looking for. Could you give me more details on how to use FC60 in fabric mode.
what configuration is required on FC60 and/or FC switches.

Do you have any related document in this regard.

Thanks in advance
Jawed Akhtar

[Peter Mattei · Accepted solution]

Do not try to use the FC60 on HP-UX in fabric mode. You could set it up but you would run into serious problems.
So stay with FCAL private loop in a QuickLoop zone!
To have a fully supported solution and to run without problems use seperate HBAs and zones for the VA7400 and the FC60.
See the attached drawing.

Cheers
Peter

[Jawed Akhtar]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the nice picture but how the performance or throughput would increase by creating quick loop for Fc60 and Fabric for VA7400.

What about device paths and device files,
would they be changed.

Do we have to reconfigure Volume Groups in our campus cluster.
Our systems are already in production and we want a solution without any major reconfiguration.

Could you provide more detail.

Thanks and Regd
Jawed Akhtar

[Ted Buis]

If your FC60 is directly connected now, it isn't likely to go any faster by connecting it via a switch. If you have multiple servers connected to hubs to a single FC60, I don't think you will see any performance increae either. If you have multiple servers connected to multiple FC60 arrays, then maybe adding switches would help but it depends. If you want the best performance on the FC60 array, you need all six disk trays (using six SCSI buses) and spreadout the disks physically to avoid hotspots. Make sure you have dual controllers.