.Part 1 Architecture HP SAN Design Reference Guide 785351-001

C-series switches
Table 5 (page 34) lists the C-series switch and port maximums for specific fabric topologies.
Table 5 C-series switch and port topology maximums
Number of user portsTotal number of portsNumber of switchesSAN topology
5285281Single-switch fabric
3,500
4,000
60Cascaded fabric
(cascaded with 12 Director switches
and 10 Fabric switches)
(maximum of 12
Director switches)
3,500
60Meshed fabric
15Ring fabric
60
Ring fabric with satellite
switches
60Core-edge fabric
H-series switches
Table 6 (page 34) lists the H-series switch and port maximums for specific topologies.
For large fabrics, the number of user ports is determined by use of SN6000 Fibre Channel Switches
and making maximum use of their dedicated 10Gb/20Gb stacking port ISLs, which leaves more
of the 8 Gb ports available for device connections.
Table 6 H-series switch and port topology maximums
Number of user portsTotal number of portsNumber of switchesSAN topology
20201Single-switch fabric
460
60030
Cascaded fabric
512Meshed fabric
26430015Ring fabric
46260030
Ring fabric with satellite
switches
Core-edge fabric
Routed fabric topologies
HP standard fabric topologies support Fibre Channel routing, which provides connectivity between
devices in multiple fabrics or VSANs.
This section describes the following HP Fibre Channel routed fabric technologies:
• “B-series Meta SAN” (page 35)—Implemented in certain 8 Gb/s switch models with license
enabled integrated Fibre Channel routing or using the B-series 1606 Extension SAN Switch,
DC Dir Switch MP Extension Blade, 400 Multi-protocol Router (400 MP Router), Multi-protocol
Router Blade (MP Router Blade), or Multi-protocol Router (MP Router), which provide selective
Fibre Channel routing connectivity between multiple B-series fabrics.
• “B-series Virtual Fabrics with IFR” (page 36)—Implemented in B-series switches (DC SAN
Backbone Director, DC04 Director, 8/80 SAN Switch, and 8/40 SAN Switch) using B-series
Virtual Fabrics. IFR allows you to share devices across multiple B-series Virtual Fabrics partions.
34 SAN fabric topologies