San fabric management license

[Daniel Pilloff]

I just was hoping someone could help me with an issue with San fabric licensing. I am currently migrating my fabric from the San Switch 16 1 gig Brocades (3 of them) to the new San Switch 2/16 2 gig Brocades (3 of them). As part of this migration a lot of servers are also being upgraded. In addition we are adding some libraries and a HSG80/EMA12000 so I will have a situation with more than four switches. I am aware of the four switch limitation with the new switches and have priced out the extended fabric license. My question relates to the older 1 GB switches. Is there a license for these switches? Do I use the license I purchased for the new switches. Do I just leave them alone? I believe I do not have to do anything (except the firmware upgrade). Can someone tell me if this is right.

[Eugeny Brychkov]

You're asking very specific question. I think you'd better call HP with it. I did not hear about such limitation. Altough I know that all brocade switches are coming with all possible licenses installed:
- Web license
- Zoning license
- QuickLoop license
- Fabric license
- Fabric Watch license
- Release v2.2 license
Hope it helps
Eugeny

[Johan Nielsen]

I believe upgrading the 1Gig switches to a certain level of Fabric OS (see http://www.brocade.com) will get the fabric management license. I wasn't aware of the 4 switch limitation. This must be an HP thing and definately worth verifying since it will definately have to be taken into consideration during design. If you plan on ISL'ing the 2Gig with the 1Gig switches, i recommend getting them on the same level of Fabric OS. The 1Gig switches make great edge switches.

[Daniel Pilloff]

Thanks for the replies. Believe it or not with the StorageWorks SAN Switch 2/16-EL 283056-B21 comes with a four switch fabric license. I am still trying to find out how the licensing works for extending past four switches.A single license for this is pretty expensive, and if I have to buy one per switch then it is going to be ridiculously expensive

[Mike Jeung]

The four switch limitation is a feature that allows entry level users to purchase the switches at a lower entry cost. The cost of the multi-switch license is approximately the difference in cost between an entry level switch and a fully featured one. Adding any 5th switch to a fabric that contains a switch with the 4 switch limitation will cause problems.

[kavanagh_1]

The thing to do is to have 2 independant SAN segments, each with 3 switches contained within them. This will have a number of benefits :-

No problems with more than 4 switches in a SAN
Independence of each part of the SAN - i.e one part can be upgraded - F/W or whatever without affecting the other half
Greater SAN availability - half the SAN can go down but the other half would be totally unaffected.