HPlogo Communicator e3000 MPE/iX Release 7.5 (Software Release C75.00): HP e3000 MPE/iX Computer Systems > Chapter 4 Fibre Channel Device and Adapter Support

Fibre Channel Adapters and Peripherals Supported

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This section gives the list of supported fibre channel adapters and peripherals on N-Class and A-Class HP e3000 systems with MPE/iX 7.5.

Fibre Channel Device Adapter Card

The Fibre Channel Device Adapter Card supported on MPE/iX 7.5 for N- and A-Class HP e3000 systems is:
  • A6795A - PCI 4X 2Gbps Single Port Fibre Channel Adapter
This fibre channel adapter card utilizes the Tachyon XL2 chip, the newest member of the Tachyon family product suite of Fibre Channel interface controllers. It operates at 2 Gigabits per second speed in a 4x PCI slot. This adapter card can automatically sense the fibre channel link speed to operate at 1Gbps or 2Gbps, thus enabling it to work with fibre channel devices supporting either speeds.

For further details on these FC adapter cards, see "HP e3000 Fibre Channel Mass Storage Adapters -- Service and User Manual".

Since this adapter card is PCI-bus based, it can be supported only on N-class and A-class HP e3000 systems. There will be no support for Fibre Channel Device Adapter cards on the NIO-bus based HP e3000 systems like 99x or 9x9 systems. These systems would continue to need a SCSI-FC router for connecting to fibre channel devices.

Fibre Channel Devices

The following fibre channel devices can be connected to N- and A-Class HP e3000 systems through fibre channel device adapter cards.
  • HP SureStore Disk Array XP48

  • HP SureStore Disk Array XP512

  • HP SureStore Virtual Array 7100
At present, only FC disk devices are supported with FC adapter cards. No tape devices are supported on FC adapter cards.

Fibre Channel Switches

In order to support the fibre channel fabric topology and provide wide range of connectivity options for HP e3000 customers, the following fibre channel switches are supported with FC adapter cards.
  • Brocade 2800 16-port FC Switch

  • Brocade 2400 8-port FC Switch

Fibre Channel Hubs

The following fibre channel hub products are supported with FC adapter cards on N- and A-class HP e3000 systems.
  • HP SureStore Hub S10 (ShortWave)

  • HP SureStore Hub L10 (LongWave)

Fibre Channel Topologies Supported

The following fibre channel topologies are supported on HP e3000 N- and A-class systems using FC device adapter cards:
  • Fabric
  • Arbitrated loop (Private and Public)
HP e3000 systems will not support point-to-point topology in actual fibre channel sense. However connecting a single FC device to a single host system is still supported, but the setup will behave like a two-node private loop. The host and the device will speak in "private loop" mode rather than in "point-to-point" mode as per fibre channel protocol definitions. There is no major difference for customers from the point of view of connectivity.

Cables and Connectors

Fibre optic cables are used to interconnect fibre channel adapters, devices, switches and hubs. An optical fibre is made of two parts, the core and cladding, surrounded by a protective coating. The core and the cladding are made as a single piece of glass, but each section has a different index of refraction. The difference in refractive indexes creates a mirror around the core, which causes light entering the core to ricochet off the cladding surface and travel along the core. There are several parameters involved in specifying a cable type. They are:

Multimode vs. Single-mode: Multimode cables are the more common fibre channel cables used for short distance connections spanning over few meters. Single-mode cables are used for long distance applications that are longer than a few miles.

Duplex vs. Simplex: Duplex cables allow for simultaneous, bi-directional data transfer allowing devices to receive and send data simultaneously. Simplex cables only consist of one fiber allowing only one-way data transfer. The cables listed below are multimode duplex cables and are used for most common fibre applications.

Size: In a cable description, you will often see a reference to 50/125 or 62.5/125. This refers to the size of the core and the cladding. The most common diameter of the core is 62.5 and 50 micron. A 9 micron diameter may be seen in future technologies. The most common diameter of the cladding is 125 micron.

SC vs. LC Connectors: Fibre channel cables are plugged to adapter cards and devices through a Gigabit Interface Connector (GBIC) module. The GBIC is a small hot-swappable serial-to-serial connector module that can be used to provide a pluggable media interface for fibre channel devices. In recent fibre channel products, GBICs have been replaced by Small Form Factor (SFF) optical modules. GBICs provide a SC-type connector while SFFs provide a LC-type connector. The technical specifications for a FC adapter card or device will mention the type of connector supported by it. The fibre channel cable used for interconnection should be selected based on the type of connectors it will connect to at either end.

Table 4-1 Cabling Required for Connecting Fibre Channel Peripherals

Description Product Number Fibre Type Fibre Size Cable Length
Fibre Optic Cable SC/SC Connector
A3583A Duplex 50/125 2 meter
A3531A Duplex 50/125 16 meter
A3735A Duplex 50/125 50 meter
A3736A Duplex 50/125 100 meter
Fibre Optic Cable LC/LC Connector
C7524A Duplex 50/125 2 meter
C7525A Duplex 50/125 16 meter
C7526A Duplex 50/125 50 meter
C7527A Duplex 50/125 200 meter
Fibre Optic Cable LC/SC Adapter
C7529A Duplex 50/125 2 meter
C7530A Duplex 50/125 16 meter
Adapter Kit (includes 2-meter LC/SC adapter and SC F/F Coupler) C7540A Duplex 50/125 2 meter Adapter
Fibre Optic SC F/F Coupler C7534A

As an example on choosing the right type of FC cable, let us assume that we are trying to connect the A6795A FC adapter card to a Virtual Array 7100 device. A6795A adapter contains an LC-type connector whereas VA7100 device uses an SC-type connector. From the list of cable types in the previous table, we can see that we need to use the LC/SC adapter type cable (C7529A or C7530A) for interconnecting A6795A and VA7100. If a distance of more than 16 meters is needed, then we need to use a combination of C7540A adapter kit along with an SC-SC type cable (A3735A or A3736A).

Further information on choosing FC cables for interconnection can be found in the Configuration Guide for the respective Fibre Channel devices.



Fibre Channel Device Adapter Support

Configuration Examples for Fibre Channel Adapters and Devices