A6685A HSC Tachlite Fibre + K570 + ESS != Switched Fabric?

[Justin Willoughby]

John made a note on this question I posted a little while back ( http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x07751cc6003bd6118fff0090279cd0f9,00.html ) that IBM does not support the K-class server with these A6685A fibre cards in a switched fabric setup.

Has any one else heard this? I was under the impression it would work and was supported. According to IBM this fibre card is supported with the ESS but it does not say anything about switched fabric.

Any comments and URLs would be helpful!

Thanks,

- Justin

[Tom Geudens]

Hi,
I'm just starting off with SAN and I suggest you repost this question in the SAN forum, but just of the top of my head I would say it does not depend on the kind of storage, but on the kind of switch / director. Example : We are using MCData directors (Connectrix). Our K-servers (according to what I've been told) cannot do a "fabric logon" and can thus not be connected directly to these directors. They can however be connected to Brocade switches which can in their turn be connected to the directors.

It's all very complex ... and it may be that your problem is just a difference in terminology.

Hope this helps,
Tom

[David Bell_1]

Justin,

Have a look at these links:

http://www.hp.com/products1/unixserverconnectivity/storage/adapter15/infolibrary/tachlite.pdf

http://techsolutions.hp.com/fc/hscfabric.htm

http://techsolutions.hp.com/fc/hscmatrix.html

http://ssddom02.storage.ibm.com/hba/hba_support.pdf

http://www.software.hp.com/cgi-bin/swdepot_parser.cgi/cgi/displayProductInfo.pl?productNumber=A6685A

HTH,

Dave

[Justin Willoughby]

Tom,

We are planning to use IBM's 2109-F16 2GB fibre switches. They are basically a Brocade switch with IBM's name on it.

I am going to look the links posted by Dave and see if I can learn any more about this. You are right I should have posted this to the SAN group, not sure why I did not.

- Justin

[John Payne_2 · Accepted solution]

Please go to http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/products/ess/pdf/1219-01.pdf (Also http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/products/ess/supserver.htm) This is IBM's site for what they support connecting to the ESS. Page 17 of the document lists what HP servers you can connect to the box.

When you get there, first note footnote '30' regarding Fabric Support. Then see footnote 33. For some reason IBM continues to say that the A5158A card is supported on the K class box, enough though we keep telling them they are wrong. (The A5158A card is a PCI card. The K class boxes do not have PCI. The only why to get it in the K class is to solder it to the board, and I am guessing that is unsupported by HP.) As a result, you can not hook a K-class to the ESS in a switched fabric.

We went the rounds with IBM on this with our ESS several times in the last year. The only way to connect a K-Class (or any non-PCI box) is to connect it via SCSI interface.

Hope it helps.

John

[David Bell_1]

Justin,

Please see page number 5 and 6 of the pdf file located at this URL. I think this will answer most of your questions regarding support of what you're trying to do.

http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/products/ess/pdf/1219-01.pdf


HTH,

Dave

[David Bell_1]

Justin,

If I'm not mistaken, the A6685A is the "supported" fibre channel adapter called out on page 17 note 35 for the K-Class HSC bus. John please correct me here if I'm wrong. However, I think the A6685A was developed to replace the A3404A "Tachyon Lite" to provide fabric support as well as enhanced performance.However, given note 30, I would verify that the A6685A will provide fabric support. I do agree with John that it appears that someone is still wanting to put the A5158A (PCI) card into an SPU which only supports HP-PB and HP-HSC connections.

HTH,

Dave

[John Payne_2]

It may be true that HP has fabric support on the A6685A card, but the issue here is with IBM. They do not support this configuration and seem to be unwilling to change. (We finally had to give up and attach via SCSI...) Although IBM does support connecting a K class via fibre, the only card they currently support is the A5158A in a switched environment. This causes a problem for people like Justin...

We also had a problem when we wanted to attach an A500 to the ESS. This machine is not supported by IBM, even though the architechure is the same as the N and L class boxes, and the card was the same. IBM wanted us to pay them for them to research the possiblity of supporting the A500 in the switched fabric.

[David Bell_1]

John,

Thanks for the info.

Dave