Справочник Пользователя для IBM SAN32M-2

configuration can consist of one or two

Fibre Channel links to a disk storage

array or to an LTO™ tape drive. An

entry-level, 16-port storage consolida-

tion solution can support up to 

15 servers with a single path to either

disk or tape. The FlexPort feature is

designed to enable a base switch to

grow to 16 ports, in eight port incre-

ments, to support more servers and

more storage devices without taking

the switch offline.

A high-availability solution can be cre-

ated with redundant switches. This

capability is ideal for server clustering

environments. Such a configuration can

support from 14 to 30 servers, each

with dual Fibre Channel adapters cross-

connected to redundant SAN32M-2

switches which are cross-connected to

a dual-controller storage system.

While the SAN32M-2 can be the foun-

dation of medium-sized SANs, it can be

configured to participate as a full mem-

ber in a tier enterprise SAN with other

members of the IBM TotalStorage SAN

m-type family. This capability helps pro-

vide investment protection as SAN

requirements evolve and grow over

time.

The introduction of large capacity, high-

availability storage systems offers new

opportunities for cost reduction through

storage consolidation and infrastruc-

ture, and management simplification. In

older environments each server

accessed its own dedicated storage

capacity using either internal disks that

were contained within the server, or

disks which were part of an external

system attached exclusively to that

server. It has become difficult to sustain

that approach as both the requirement

for storage capacity and the number of

servers has increased. Storage consoli-

dation is a fundamental objective of

infrastructure simplification and is based

on the philosophy that it is easiest to

share and manage capacity contained

in a large capacity, high-performance

and high-availability external storage

system such as provided by the

IBM TotalStorage DS4000 and DS6000

series. Fibre Channel Storage Area

Networks (SANs) were developed to

provide efficient, high-performance

access from many servers to many

storage devices.

While it is possible in small environ-

ments to direct-connect servers to

external storage systems using fibre

channel links, it is more common to

configure a SAN switch between the

servers and the storage system to

enable multiple servers to share the

same storage capacity. This simple

SAN is depicted in the following 

diagram.

The SAN32M-2 was designed specifi-

cally for use as the SAN switch in this

type of configuration. It is easy to install

and easy to manage. The tan, green

and blue servers represent heteroge-

neous server types which are members

of the same SAN and share capacity of

the large disk system. The SAN32M-2

can be upgraded to 32 ports and is

future-ready to support 4 Gbps servers

and storage devices as they are intro-

duced. Its flexible design allows partici-

pation with other SAN m-type switches

in fabrics that evolve as requirements

change. And it supports advanced

functions to help enable participation in

complex fabrics including cascaded

switches and ISL trunks.

Many applications require continuous

operation. A common design approach

to achieve that objective is to run multi-

ple instances of the application across

a cluster of servers. When a server fails

or must be taken offline for mainte-

nance, a backup server is available to

help continue operation with a minimum

of impact. Redundant paths to data are

usually configured in a clustered server