HP General IO Connectivity manual HP Fabric Installation Prerequisites, Other Product Elements

Installation Overview & Planning

Installing HP Fabric Clustering System

Figure 1-4 Stylized View of Switch Connectors

Console Port

			System Status LEDs
Power Plug		Ethernet
	Fabric Switch Cluster Connections
		Management
			Power Plug
		Port

Other Product Elements

Other elements of the HP Fabric product family:

•HP 4X Fabric Copper Cables

—AB346A (5m length)

—AB353A (7m length)

—AB347A (10m length)

•The HP Fabric software consists of HP-UX drivers and user-space components as well as firmware on fabric adapters and switches.

•Fabric software supports Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA). RDMA provides higher bandwidth, lower CPU overhead, and lower latency (the time a message takes to get from one point to another).

Installing HP Fabric Clustering System

The installation procedure for the HP Fabric clustering system installs the Switch, Host Channel Adapter (HCA), cables, cable guide, and gets the system up and running.

Managing the Switch

The fabric switch can be used without being managed. This Installation Section does not include information for managing HP Fabric. You can manage it using its Command Line Interface (CLI) - a text-based interface accessible through a direct serial connection, Telnet over IP, or SSH over IP.

HP Fabric Installation Prerequisites

Before installing the HP Fabric product, ensure that the following hardware and software prerequisites are met:

•Check the HP Fabric Clustering System Release Notes for known problems, required patches, or other information needed for installation, available at http://www.docs.hp.com in the Networking & Communications section.

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