SAN32M-2
IBM TotalStorage SAN32M-2 fabric
switch
Designed for high-performance, scalable and simple-to-use
medium to enterprise SAN environments
Highlights
■
Simple-to-use SAN switch with
ease-of-installation and easeof-use features designed
specifically for the needs of
medium-sized and enterprise
environments
■
Foundation for new infrastructure simplification and business
continuity solutions for servers
running Microsoft® Windows®,
UNIX®, Linux®, NetWare®
and OS/400®, AIX®, z/OS®
operating systems
■
High-performance 1, 2 and
4 Gigabit per second links with
pay-as-you-grow FlexPort scalability enables growth from
16 to 24 to 32 ports
■
Designed for high availability
with hot-swappable, dual power
supplies and HotCAT online
code activation
IBM TotalStorage SMB solutions
The IBM TotalStorage® SAN32M-2 fabric switch is designed specifically to
address the needs of medium-sized
and enterprise SAN environments. It
can be used to create a wide range of
high performance SAN solutions, from
simple single-switch configurations to
larger multi-switch configurations which
support fabric connectivity and
advanced business continuity
capabilities. Infrastructure simplification
solutions for IBM _`® xSeries®,
iSeries™, pSeries® and zSeries®
servers include storage consolidation
and high-availability server clustering
with IBM TotalStorage disk storage
arrays. Business continuity solutions
include data protection with
IBM TotalStorage tape libraries and
devices, and IBM Tivoli® Storage
Manager data protection software.
A single SAN32M-2 switch can serve
as the cornerstone of a Storage Area
Network for those who want the benefits of storage consolidation and are just
beginning to implement Fibre Channel
storage systems. Such an entry-level
High density design with 32 ports in an efficient 1RU height helps save rack space
configuration can consist of one or two
Fibre Channel links to a disk storage
array or to an LTO™ tape drive. An
entry-level, 16-port storage consolidation solution can support up to
15 servers with a single path to either
disk or tape. The FlexPort feature is
designed to enable a base switch to
grow to 16 ports, in eight port increments, to support more servers and
more storage devices without taking
the switch offline.
A high-availability solution can be created with redundant switches. This
capability is ideal for server clustering
environments. Such a configuration can
support from 14 to 30 servers, each
with dual Fibre Channel adapters crossconnected to redundant SAN32M-2
switches which are cross-connected to
a dual-controller storage system.
While the SAN32M-2 can be the foundation of medium-sized SANs, it can be
configured to participate as a full member in a tier enterprise SAN with other
members of the IBM TotalStorage SAN
m-type family. This capability helps provide investment protection as SAN
requirements evolve and grow over
time.
Simple SAN configuration
The introduction of large capacity, highavailability storage systems offers new
opportunities for cost reduction through
storage consolidation and infrastructure, and management simplification. In
older environments each server
accessed its own dedicated storage
capacity using either internal disks that
were contained within the server, or
disks which were part of an external
system attached exclusively to that
server. It has become difficult to sustain
that approach as both the requirement
for storage capacity and the number of
servers has increased. Storage consolidation is a fundamental objective of
infrastructure simplification and is based
on the philosophy that it is easiest to
share and manage capacity contained
in a large capacity, high-performance
and high-availability external storage
system such as provided by the
IBM TotalStorage DS4000 and DS6000
series. Fibre Channel Storage Area
Networks (SANs) were developed to
provide efficient, high-performance
access from many servers to many
storage devices.
While it is possible in small environments to direct-connect servers to
external storage systems using fibre
channel links, it is more common to
configure a SAN switch between the
servers and the storage system to
enable multiple servers to share the
same storage capacity. This simple
SAN is depicted in the following
diagram.
The SAN32M-2 was designed specifically for use as the SAN switch in this
type of configuration. It is easy to install
and easy to manage. The tan, green
and blue servers represent heterogeneous server types which are members
of the same SAN and share capacity of
the large disk system. The SAN32M-2
can be upgraded to 32 ports and is
future-ready to support 4 Gbps servers
and storage devices as they are introduced. Its flexible design allows participation with other SAN m-type switches
in fabrics that evolve as requirements
change. And it supports advanced
functions to help enable participation in
complex fabrics including cascaded
switches and ISL trunks.
High availability SAN configuration
Many applications require continuous
operation. A common design approach
to achieve that objective is to run multiple instances of the application across
a cluster of servers. When a server fails
or must be taken offline for maintenance, a backup server is available to
help continue operation with a minimum
of impact. Redundant paths to data are
usually configured in a clustered server
environment for the same reasons in an
effort to help maintain access to data.
Each server is configured with redundant Host Bus Adapters. Each Host
Bus Adapter is connected to a different
SAN switch, and each switch is connected to a different controller in a disk
system. Every effort is made to maintain
application access to data.
The SAN32M-2 is an excellent switch
to use in a clustered server environment. Separate SAN switches enable
two separate SAN fabrics, which are
desirable as a means to help minimize
or eliminate single points of failure. The
yellow and green clusters shown above
provide redundant components at every
level and are designed to help minimize
application outages.
Business continuity solution
Many small- and medium-sized companies want to implement a business continuity or remote backup capability to
help address strict new regulatory
requirements. The SAN32M-2 fabric
switch can help provide the SAN connectivity required for these environments. The diagram on the following
page is intended to represent two different sites. The blue side represents
the production site and the green side
represents the remote or backup site.
Many disk subsystems, including the
IBM TotalStorage DS6000 and DS4000
series, are capable of copying data to a
remote location. The data path for the
remote copy operation is represented
by the red links in the diagram.
Two SAN32M-2 fabric switches can be
connected over metro distances (up to
10 km) using longwave SFP optical
transceivers. Longer distances can be
supported with SAN routers, such as
the IBM TotalStorage SAN04M-R and
SAN16M-R, which transport Fibre
Channel Protocol (FCP) over Internet
Protocol (IP) networks without merging
the local and remote fabrics.
SAN32M-2 fabric switches can also be
used to connect two locations to
enable remote data backup. An
Information Lifecycle Management (ILM)
application such as IBM Tivoli® Storage
Manager (TSM), which runs on a server
in the production site, can write data to
a tape system at a remote location. The
same distance capabilities are available
for the business continuity solution
described above.
First time SAN users characteristics
Easy to install and maintain
The SAN32M-2 includes capabilities
designed to make it easy to install and
easy to maintain for system administrators who have minimal experience with
SAN components. EFCM Basic provides intuitive graphic switch management capabilities. Installation and
backup/restore wizards are included for
novice users which are designed to
help guide them through switch setup
and operation.
EFMC Basic (formerly SANpilot) is
designed for first-time SAN users with
minimum SAN expertise. EFCM Basic
can help simplify monitoring and configuration management. Functions include
Web browser access, fabric and switch
configuration management, port activity
monitoring and reset, firmware updating, event logging, diagnostics and
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