Cisco Systems SN 5428-2 manual 1-11, Routing SCSI Requests and Responses

Chapter 1 Before Configuring SN 5428-2 Storage Router Software

Transparent SCSI Routing Overview

Routing SCSI Requests and Responses

Transparent SCSI routing consists of routing SCSI requests and responses between hosts in an IP network and an intelligent storage array that is directly connected to an SN 5428-2 Fibre Channel interface. (See Figure 1-10.)

Figure 1-10 Routing SCSI Requests and Responses for Transparent SCSI Routing

IP hosts		Intelligent storage
	Cisco SN 5428-2	array
IP	FC

SCSI requests and responses

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Each host that requires IP access to storage via an SN 5428-2 Storage Router needs to have a compatible iSCSI driver installed. Using the iSCSI protocol, the iSCSI driver allows an IP host to transport SCSI requests and responses over an IP network. From the perspective of a host operating system, the iSCSI drive appears to be a locally attached SCSI or Fibre Channel drive to the host. From the perspective of the storage array, each IP host appears as an FC host (with one Fibre Channel address for each host).

Transparent SCSI routing consists of the following main actions (Figure 1-11):

•Transporting SCSI requests and responses over an IP network between the hosts and the SN 5428-2 Storage Router.

•Routing SCSI requests and responses between hosts on an IP network and an intelligent storage array.

•Transporting SCSI requests and responses between the SN 5428-2 Storage Router and an intelligent storage array.

Figure 1-11 Transparent SCSI Routing Actions
IP hosts	Intelligent storage
Cisco SN 5428-2	array
IP	FC

Transporting SCSI	Transporting SCSI
requests and responses	requests and responses
over an IP network	between an SN 5428-2
	and a storage array

Routing SCSI requests

and responses

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Cisco SN 5428-2 Storage Router Software Configuration Guide

OL-4691-01 1-11