
Section 3
Planning
Consider the following when planning a fabric:
Devices
Multiple chassis fabrics
Performance
Device access
Fabric management
Fabric security
3.1
Devices
When planning a fabric, consider the number of devices and the anticipated demand. This will determine the number of ports that are needed and in turn the number of switches. Consider how many and what types of switches are needed.
Consider the distribution of public and private devices as well as targets and initiators. Public devices have full Fibre Channel addressing capability, and therefore can communicate with any other public device on the fabric. An F_Port supports a single public device. An FL_Port can support up to 126 public devices in an arbitrated loop.
Private devices do not have full Fibre Channel addressing capability, only the Arbitrated Loop Physical Address (ALPA) portion. A TL_Port provides a proxy for a loop of up to 124 private target devices allowing communication with up to 63
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