Brocade Communications Systems SilkWorm 3200 User Manual

EXCELLENT VALUE FOR A VARIETY OF
SAN ENVIRONMENTS

The Brocade®SilkWorm®3200 line
of 8-port, 1 Gbit/sec and 2 Gbit/sec
auto-sensing entry fabric switches
significantly increases performance and
functionality for small-to-medium­sized SANs.Based on advanced
Brocade third-generation switch ASIC
technology,the SilkWorm 3200 line
combines over 32 Gbit/sec of
aggregate Fibre Channel throughput
with advanced new features that
greatly enhance the value of a wide
range of SAN environments.

Designed for low-cost flexibility,
the SilkWorm 3200 line can provide
an end-to-end 2 Gbit/sec switch
solution that serves a variety of
purposes, including:

•A fast and easy way to migrate
from DAS to SAN environments
(see Figure 1)

•A reliable base for small SAN islands
and storage fan-out connectivity

•A key component for highly avail­able server clustering environments

•A NAS back end that supports
storage consolidation and tape
backup for multiple NAS filers

• An entry-point edge switch
designed for both entry
fabr ics and high-perfor mance
core-to-edge networks
supporting the connectivity of
2 Gbit/sec devices

•A low-cost replacement for
legacy hubs and loop switches

•A scalable solution for
2-switch entry fabr ics up
to full-fabr ic enter prises

INCREASED INTELLIGENCE IN THE SWITCH

Brocade has developed an Intelligent
Fabric Operating Environment
that incorporates intelligence
directly into the switch fabric—
creating a highly available,scalable,
and secure environment for storage
applications. This architecture
improves performance for SAN
applications through the use of
advanced fabric services such as
optional Brocade Inter-Switch Link
(ISL) Trunking and wire-speed
Frame Filtering.

The Brocade SilkWorm 3200 line of
entry-to-enterprise fabric switches simplifies
Storage Area Network (SAN) deployment,
enabling cost-effective migration from
Direct-Attached Storage (DAS) environments.

Highlights

•Provides a low-cost switch solution for
DAS-to-SAN migration, small SAN
islands, NAS back ends, the edge of
core-to-edge enterprise SANs, and
hub/loop switch replacement

• Enables low-cost storage connectivity
for server clustering environments

• Helps increase ROI for organizations
that need reliable, high-performance
SANs to support business applications

• Enables 8-port 1 Gbit/sec and
2 Gbit/sec intelligent switching at
an unprecedented price point

•Provides full forward and
backward compatibility with other
Brocade SilkWorm switches

• Simplifies SAN deployment
and administration through
embedded Brocade WEB TOOLS
management software

•Provides the ability to scale from
entry 2-switch fabrics to full-feature
enterprise-level capabilities

SILKWORM 3200

SILKWORM SWITCH FAMILY

To support high-speed data traffic,optional
ISL Trunking combines up to four ISLs
between a pair of switches into a single,
logical high-speed trunk running at up
to 8 Gbit/sec.In addition,Frame Filtering
improves both SAN security and managea­bility.This intelligent design enables new
capabilities such as hardware-enforced zon­ing based on World-Wide Name (WWN)
and advanced performance monitoring to
optimize storage resource utilization.

HIGH AVAILABILITY THROUGHOUT THE FABRIC

The full-fabric version of the SilkWorm 3200
is designed to provide high-availability
switching in redundant dual-fabric SANs
for small-to-medium-sized deployments.
Combining the proven reliability of
the SilkWorm family with a wide
range of advanced fabric services, the
SilkWorm 3200 line provides a SAN
fabr ic capable of delivering overall system
availability greater than 99.999 percent—
the “five nines”of availability.

With the Brocade Extended Fabrics feature
and Dense Wave Division Multiplexing
(DWDM) technology,storage networks
can span up to 100 km (1 Gbit/sec) or
50 km (2 Gbit/sec) over Metropolitan Area
Networks (MANs)—helping to ensure the
highest levels of business continuance.

FAST, RELIABLE 2 GBIT/SEC PERFORMANCE

The SilkWorm 3200 line provides excellent
price/perfor mance value with all ports
capable of operating at 1 and 2 Gbit/sec
(full-duplex) to enable 32 Gbit/sec of
uncongested switch throughput. Auto­sensing and speed-matching of 1 and
2 Gbit/sec traffic ensures interoperability
between current 1 Gbit/sec devices and
next-generation 2 Gbit/sec devices.

INVESTMENT PROTECTION FOR
EXISTING TECHNOLOGY

To help protect existing investments,
the SilkWorm 3200 line offers full backward
and forward compatibility with other
SilkWorm switches—providing a seamless
migration path to 2 Gbit/sec connectivity
and intelligent fabr ic ser vices.

Because the new switch supports multivendor
SAN environments—such as those built on
Windows NT/2000,UNIX, Linux, Solaris,
and AIX platforms—organizations migrating
from DAS environments have much
greater flexibility in building low-cost,
easy-to-manage SANs.As a result,these
organizations can quickly deploy business
continuance applications such as remote,
LAN-free,and ser verless backup; storage
consolidation;remote mirroring;
clustering; and data replication.

SILKWORM 3200

Figure 1.

While DAS environments do not
allow storage resource sharing,
SANs provide an easy and cost­effective way to share storage—
even in multivendor environments.