Cisco Systems OL-12518-01 manual Service Offerings over Fcip

Chapter 4 FCIP over IP/MPLS Core

Service Offerings over FCIP

Service Offerings over FCIP

Figure 4-5shows a typical service architecture for deploying FCIP over IP/MPLS.

Figure 4-5

Local

Data Center

SAN

FCIP over IP/MPLS Architecture

Remote

Data Center

SAN

Gateway		Gateway
FCIP	IP/MPLS	FCIP

132439

The FCIP gateway is the key component of the overall architecture.

Some typical uses of FCIP to provide SAN extension services are as follows:

•Asynchronous data replication—Enables low recovery point objective (RPO) applications between intelligent storage arrays using proprietary replication software. Network latency does not affect application performance the way it does with synchronous replication. You may need to tune the replication software or upper-layer protocol to ensure optimum use of the FCIP link.

•Remote tape vaulting—Enables remote backup for disaster recovery using tape or disk. Tape applications typically allow a single outstanding I/O operation, which limits throughput on long distance links. Write Acceleration and optionally compression techniques can help to optimize throughput in these situations.

•Host initiator to remote pooled storage—Enables access to FC-attached pooled storage arrays in another site or data center.

Service Offering Scenario A—Disaster Recovery

A customer wants to use FCIP to implement disaster recovery solutions for their remote sites. Corporate HQ is used as a primary site and data is replicated across the SP IP/MPLS network for business continuance and disaster recovery. The same setup can be used to implement backup and restore applications. Figure 4-6shows a typical hub-and-spoke setup where customer SAN traffic can be transported over the SP IP/MPLS network.

	Data Center High Availability Clusters Design Guide
OL-12518-01		4-15