Whether you are building a small or large network, one aspect of a robust Fibre Channel deployment is the SAN components used to build your solution. By understanding the different components, features of those components, and how they are best used, you can plan and deploy a reliable, scalable network. Upfront qualification, testing, and selection of equipment are important pieces of making your SAN deployment work. Understanding which features you will be using in your equipment will help guide your testing process. This chapter discusses the different components of a SAN and their major features, and guides you in selecting the right equipment for the job.

Fibre Channel has its own various types of connectors and media, including both optical and copper interfaces, and varied ways to connect between the different kinds of media. Fibre Channel uses fiber-optic and high-speed copper media to bring together the speed and reliability of a channeled technology, with the scalability of networking technologies. This is the perfect medium for transporting large amounts of data quickly to many different nodes across a network.

The standardized use of Gigabit Interface Connectors (GBICs) has made switching between media types simple and easy, and mixed-media networks are standard. This chapter explains the different connector and cabling options, and how to select the right one for your application. It also covers the kinds of network topologies you can implement and why.

Hubs, switches, Host Bus Adapters (HBAs), and storage make up the components of a SAN. Hubs serve...