Fibre Channel switch
Encyclopedia
Computer storage
Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to computer components and recording media that retain digital data. Data storage is one of the core functions and fundamental components of computers....
field, a Fibre Channel switch is a network switch
Network switch
A network switch or switching hub is a computer networking device that connects network segments.The term commonly refers to a multi-port network bridge that processes and routes data at the data link layer of the OSI model...
compatible with the Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel, or FC, is a gigabit-speed network technology primarily used for storage networking. Fibre Channel is standardized in the T11 Technical Committee of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards , an American National Standards Institute –accredited standards...
(FC) protocol. It allows the creation of a Fibre Channel fabric, that is currently the core component of most storage area network
Storage area network
A storage area network is a dedicated network that provides access to consolidated, block level data storage. SANs are primarily used to make storage devices, such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes, accessible to servers so that the devices appear like locally attached devices...
s (SAN). The fabric is a network of Fibre Channel devices which allows many-to-many
Many-to-many
Many-to-many is a term that describes a communication paradigm and an associated media form. It is the third of three major Internet computing paradigms...
communication, device name lookup, security
Computer security
Computer security is a branch of computer technology known as information security as applied to computers and networks. The objective of computer security includes protection of information and property from theft, corruption, or natural disaster, while allowing the information and property to...
, and redundancy
Redundancy (engineering)
In engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical components or functions of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the case of a backup or fail-safe....
. FC switches implement zoning
Fibre Channel zoning
In storage networking, Fibre Channel zoning is the partitioning of a Fibre Channel fabric into smaller subsets to restrict interference, add security, and to simplify management. While a SAN makes available several virtual disks , each system connected to the SAN should only be allowed access to a...
, a mechanism that disables unwanted traffic between certain fabric nodes.
A Fibre Channel director is, by current convention, a switch with at least 128 ports. It does not differ from a switch in core FC protocol functionality. The term itself initially soaked from old ESCON
ESCON
ESCON is a data connection created by IBM, and is commonly used to connect their mainframe computers to peripheral devices such as disk storage and tape drives. ESCON is an optical fiber, half-duplex, serial interface. It originally operated at a rate of 10 Mbyte/s, which was later increased to...
technology.
Fiber Channel switches may be deployed one at a time or in larger multi-switch configurations. SAN administrators typically add new switches as their server and storage needs grow, connecting switches together via fiber optic cable using the standard device ports. Some switch vendors now offer dedicated high-speed stacking ports to handle inter-switch connections (similar to existing stackable Ethernet switches), allowing high-performance multi-switch configurations to be created using fewer switches overall.
Major manufacturers of Fibre Channel switches are: Brocade
Brocade Communications Systems
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. , based in Silicon Valley , is a vendor of storage area network hardware and software. The company also designs, manufactures, and sells networking products and management applications for local, metro, and wide area networks...
, Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
, and QLogic
QLogic
QLogic Corporation is an Aliso Viejo, California-based designer and supplier of storage networking, high performance computing networking, and converged infrastructure solutions...
.
See also
- Host Bus Adapter (HBA)
- List of Fibre Channel switches
- Fibre ChannelFibre ChannelFibre Channel, or FC, is a gigabit-speed network technology primarily used for storage networking. Fibre Channel is standardized in the T11 Technical Committee of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards , an American National Standards Institute –accredited standards...