Solutions in this chapter:

• Identifying Fabric Topologies and SAN Architectures

• Working with the Core/Edge Topology

• Determining Levels of Availability

• Configuring Traffic Patterns

• Evaluating Performance Considerations

• Summary

• Solutions Fast Track

• Frequently Asked Questions

Introduction

In Chapter 5, The SAN Design Process, you performed the requirements analysis to determine what your SAN needs to accomplish. In Chapter 6, SAN Applications and Configurations, you explored some of the solutions that could be built on your SAN. At this point in the book, you should know the following information about your SAN:

• How many ports you need for hosts

• How many ports you need for storage

• What the traffic patterns will be

• The network s performance requirements

• Where all of the equipment will be located

• What, if any, MAN/WAN or campus distances will be involved

• What type of solution you are building (such as, storage consolidation)

• How all of this will likely change over time

In this chapter, you will take this information and determine the fabric topology or topologies that best suit your needs as part of your overall SAN architecture. We discuss the different categories of fabric topologies that you could apply and which topology is most appropriate in any given case. Further-more, we describe how you could use multiple fabrics to form a highly reliable and scalable SAN architecture. We delve into detail on one particular topology, the core/edge fabric, also commonly known as a star topology network. There are subtle differences between normal star networks and a core/edge SAN...