Fibre Channel SAN Proof of Concept

We have an apple XRaid a 4gb/sec interface currently connected to 1 dell poweredge with a qlogic HBA.

I'm trying to set up a proof of concept to show how multiple servers can share storage. However, I don't have a SAN switch, nor do I have any other HBA's. So I'm trying to put together a cheap solution. There are 1 and 2 gb switches and cards on ebay that are cheap. Will these work with my XRaid?

In a nutshell, will typical fibre-channel equipment auto-negotiate speed to either 4, 2 or 1, depending on what switch and HBA I'm using?

Sorry, I am a storage noobie.

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Comments

Claymoore

As long as your SAN has enough ports for everything to directly connect, you don't need a fibre switch.

If you are just trying to set up a cheap proof of concept, you could use StarWind to create an iSCSI target on a Windows server and use the MS iSCSI intitiator along with your existing ethernet equipment to create a simple IP SAN.

Fugazi1000

Pretty much all Fibre Channel kit is backwards compatible. If you mix vendors kit it will need to run in 'interoperability mode' and certain vendor specific features will not be available. For testing this will not be an issue.

Over the years, as the speeds got faster, so did the density of ports so the HBAs and switches may have different physical connectors (e.g. later are smaller) so you may need to get a mix of SC and LC fibre cables.

It's well worth playing with LUN masking as a basic way to stop certain hosts (e.g. Windows) taking ownership of another hosts' LUNs!! An FC switch is needed for this.

iSCSI has comparable concepts but is NOT Fibre Channel.

If you are playing/doing a TPOC then I would suggest that you make sure you have any important data on the XRaid backed up.

hypnotoad

Well im thinking about buying a cheap 2gig/sec 8 port switch with SFPs on ebay as a POC, and I just wanted to make sure it would work with the 4 gig/sec cards and SAN.

Can anyone recommend a book on enterprise storage/SANs ?

hypnotoad

Ok, this might be a dumb question but would it be possible to use the SFP ports on a regular ethernet switch for a SAN? I realize this is inpractical, but im just curious.

Claymoore

hypnotoad wrote: »

Ok, this might be a dumb question but would it be possible to use the SFP ports on a regular ethernet switch for a SAN? I realize this is inpractical, but im just curious.

It would depend on the switch, but I doubt the SFPs to which you are referring would support fibre channel. If you want to combine FC and ethernet in one chassis, check out something like the Cisco Nexus series of switches.

Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches - Products & Services - Cisco Systems
Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches - Products & Services - Cisco Systems

For a book, I recommend you start with Storage Networking Fundamentals from Cisco Press (also available in a Kindle edition). I used it as a supplemental text when I was studying for my EMCPA exam.