HP Virtual Connect Fibre Channel Networking Scenarios Cookbook

30
Mixed Fabric-Attach and Flat SAN mode support
You can mix Virtual Connect Fabric-Attach and Direct-Attach Flat SAN fabrics on a same Virtual Connect domain. This
mix is useful if an administrator needs to attach additional storage systems that are not supported today with the
Direct-Attach mode.
Figure 31: Mixed Fabric-Attach and Direct-Attach SAN Fabrics configuration
12Vdc 12Vdc
HP StorageWorks
4/32B SAN Switch
0 1 2 3 8 9 10 11 16 17 18 19 24 25 26 27 3130292823222120151413127654
VC FlexFabric Module
VC SAN A-1 VC SAN A-2
3PAR Storage
System
XPEVA
MSA
VC SAN Fabrics defined
in the VC Domain
Direct attached
Storage Systems
Fabric attached
Storage Systems
StoreOnce
Backup
System
F-PortN-Port
Fabric-Attach Direct-Attach
The mixed Fabric-Attach and Direct-Attach fabrics require the creation of two different fabrics because a VC SAN
fabric can only contain uplink ports of one type. The following configuration in Figure 30 is therefore not supported.
Figure 32: VC SAN Fabric uplinks cannot be connected to at the same time to a SAN Fabric and to a Storage System
12Vdc 12Vdc
HP StorageWorks
4/32B SAN Switch
0 1 2 3 8 9 10 11 16 17 18 19 24 25 26 27 3130292823222120151413127654
XPEVA
MSA
StoreOnce
Backup
System
VC SAN 1
VC SAN Fabrics defined
in the VC Domain
(true for both Fabric-Attach
and Direct-Attach fabrics)
Direct attached
Storage Systems
Fabric attached
Storage Systems
VC FlexFabric Module
3PAR Storage
System
Physical view of a mixed Flat SAN and Fabric-Attached configuration