HP / EMC Fibre Cable types (LC/SC)

[Stuart Abramson_2]

I don't know too much about Fibre Cables.

Apparently there are two types of connectors:

LC
SC

Is this right:?

The A6795A 2 GBit Fibre card requires an SC.

The EMC ED-1032 Connectrix requires an LC.

The EMC 8430 Symmetrix requires an LC.

So, I need SC to LC cables to run from the HP HBA (A6795A) to the Connectrix, and LC to LC cables from the Connectrix to the Symmetrix?

I'm located 15 miles away from the Computer Center and can't actually see these cables. Is there a web site somewhere where I can see what they look like?

[Stuart Abramson_2]

What did the A5158A fibre card take?

[Eugeny Brychkov · Accepted solution]

SC - standard connector type
LC - low profile connector type
A6795A has LC connector
A5158A has SC connector
there're cables with LC connector at one end and SC connector at another
Eugeny

[Bernd Reize]

Adaptec has some nice pics of these cables/connectors.

http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/product/cableprodindex.html?prodkey=ACK-OPT-SC-SC-5M

The pics are not very large, but you should be able to see the differences.

[Mike Naime]

It looks like you have the wrong info on your HBA.

HP A6795A PCI 2 Gb Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter for HP-UX

??? Optical small form factor (LC) interface
??? Operating system support for this HBA is Windows Advanced Server,
Limited Edition v1.2 and Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 7.3
??? This HBA is qualified for Itanium 2 Server platforms rx2600 and rx5670
connecting XP and VA storage arrays

So , you need LC-LC for all of your cabeling.


To address your other questions.
There are several different fibre cables that you can purchase.

This gives a sample view of several different styles.
http://www.qvs.com/fiber/images/fibergroup.gif

This page gives some good views of Adaptors.
http://www.m-g-imports.co.uk/fibre-optic-adaptors.htm

Note: Due to the density of the LC connector, there is not an SC-LC adaptor that I was able to find one year ago. I had to buy a cable.

By googling, can see that there are the following connector types.

SC
LC
ST
MT-RJ
FC
FDDI

Most of the cables that are used for SAN/Storage are DUPLEX cables. This means that you have 2 lines (Duplex) that allow for both a transmit and a receive line between the two devices.

Compaq has standardized on the SC connector for 1GB fibre. 2GB fibre is using the LC style connector.

I have not heard what the 10GB connector will be.

[Derek_31]

Also be aware that for multimode there are 50 micron and 62.5 micron cables. You can use either for an end-to-end solution, but you can't mix and match them along one path. I prefer 50 micron since you can run them slightly longer distances and it's what HP sells.