Fiber network connection

[Mario N.]

A customer want to implement a direct fiber based Ethernet connection between an ML350 G6 and a DL380 G7 server.
What network interface shoud they implement on each server?
Can they use anything similar to a (copper) cross cable or should they use a dedicated fiber switch?
Regards
Mario

[Ali]

Hi Mario,

There are three major Fibre Channel topologies, describing how a number of ports are connected together

Point-to-Point (FC-P2P). Two devices are connected directly to each other.

Arbitrated loop (FC-AL).

Switched fabric.

you can use FC point-to-point (without a FC switch) no problem, just cable it up tx/rx to rx/tx. You can pull the individual fibre terminations out of the B-shaped sleeve.

you may need to configure the HBA to be 'loop' rather than 'switched', depending on exact HBA model.

hope this helps,
Don't forget to assign points if information provided is helpful...:)

Cheers,
Aftab

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hey Mario!

Is that fibre channel over ethernet, or ethernet over optical cable/fibre?

What are you going to use this connection for?
Should they share storage or hearbeat or what?

Have they checked out 10GbE (Ethernet)?
Fibre is max 8Gbps now and that's roughly the same as 10GbE in terms of speed, and 10GbE quite a bit cheaper.

They could try out the fairly new HP CI - converged infrastructure - but you will need special HBAs and switches for that.

See http://www8.hp.com/us/en/solutions/solutions-detail.html?compURI=tcm:245-785656
for more information.

With those HBAs you can chose between fibre or ethernet on a card.