Scalable Storage for Infinite Data Growth

First to deliver Fibre Channel switches, QLogic now offers the SANbox™ series, the most scalable Fibre Channel switches available.

The SANbox series delivers the broadest switch product line, offering 8- and 16-port configurations as well as Directors in 64- and 128-port configurations. The most flexible solution for storage area networks, the SANbox cost effectively meets the storage requirements of today's enterprise with the flexibility to grow almost infinitely—as data volumes multiply, geographical distances lengthen, and enterprise storage becomes more heterogeneous.

Switched SAN Fabrics: The Solution for Explosive Data Growth

With the proliferation of applications such as the Internet, e-commerce, video, data mining and on-line-transaction processing, explosive data volumes have fueled the need for storage area networks. SANs are the powerful networks behind the servers—and only a switched Fibre Channel SAN or "fabric" effectively delivers on the promise of the SAN with:

• Centralized storage and management from one console
• Increased LAN performance by removing storage traffic
• Disaster tolerance via remote mirroring
• Ability to backup, add, and replace storage without downtime
• Ability to deliver gigabit-per-second performance today with 2, 4 and more gigabit-per-second performance in the future

Most of today's switched SAN fabrics are embedded into storage systems and are transparent to the IS manager, who manages the switch through the storage vendor's interface. But what happens when the IS manager wants to link two or more such systems together or introduce a different vendor's storage system into the storage area network?

The Solution for Building Large SANs: QLogic's Multistage™

QLogic has leveraged its experience in growing the world's largest Fibre Channel network to develop QLogic's Multistage, the multiswitch architecture capable of growing nearly infinitely large SANs without the performance degradation that occurs in other architectures, such as cascaded. Although QLogic also offers cascaded architecture for small, less expensive SANs, only QLogic Multistage architecture offers the greatest number of connections to grow the largest fabrics. And because QLogic's switches have the lowest latency in the industry, the largest SANs in the world are also the fastest.

 

QLogic's Multistage architecture provides the foundation for growing almost limitless, high–performing SANs. Any of QLogic's switch configurations can be an edge or core switch.

The Key to Scalability: Highly Integrated Hardware

QLogic can deliver the highest-performing, scalable SANs because the SANbox switches are highly integrated—fewer parts result in higher performance, higher reliability, and lower cost.

The key to a switch's performance is in the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). QLogic's advanced 4-port ASIC includes embedded memory, enabling on-chip data transfer without going to shared memory. Unlike a shared memory architecture, which eventually becomes limited when too many processors attempt to access the memory, ASICs with embedded memory can grow very large switches and very large SANs—and are the only solution for building SANs that can manage data volumes with infinite growth.

Scaling to Include the Legacy

Early Fibre Channel installations often included private loop protocol. Private loops are generally built using hubs that communicate by passing messages around the loop from one device to the next. They were labeled "private" because they communicated only with other devices on the same loop and could not be brought into communication with larger public networks.

QLogic's SANbox protects the customer's legacy investment in private loop devices by providing a translation mechanism to bring private loop devices forward—to become an integral part of the public switched SAN. With QLogic's unique Full Loop Support (FLS™) facility, both private and public loop devices can be attached to one or more fabric switches—and can be viewed and managed as a single SAN fabric. And as an added bonus, QLogic's SANsurfer™ management GUI displays all the devices on both public and private loops for easy troubleshooting.

Scaling to Include Heterogeneous Devices

To support all work groups within an enterprise and accommodate changing needs, SAN fabrics must be able to encompass all hardware and software platforms with "any to any" connectivity. QLogic's SANbox is protocol independent, and can connect UNIX-, NT-, and Linux-based hardware platforms, as well as platforms from IBM, DEC and Macintosh. And to ensure software compatibility, QLogic is committed to interoperate with all SAN software companies. A leader in the Open Standards Fabric Initiative (OSFI) to promote switch-to-switch interoperability, QLogic's goal is to deliver the highest performing SAN switch for seamless integration into any environment.

 

Scalability Checklist
Broadest line of switches with 8-, 16-, 64-, and 128-port configurations Director class switches designed for Reliability, Availability, Serviceability (RAS) Embedded memory architecture Ability to bring legacy private devices up to fabric level		Ability to grow high-performing SANs almost infinitely with minimum latency buildup Robust management features to easily add and disable devices without downtime Highest level of integration for highest performance and reliability at the lowest cost

 

Configuring and Managing the Large-Scale SAN

The SANbox series of switches is designed to be flexible and easy-to-integrate. Self-configuring ports, an QLogic first, enable automatic registration of all devices on every port and every loop. And the SANsurfer^TM GUI, included in every switch, delivers the power tools for growing and managing large SANs:

QLogic's SANguard™ Zoning: flexible and secure
The SANbox can be easily configured into one or more fabrics to ensure that data is grouped appropriately—both to share and to secure. QLogic offers software zoning for configuration flexibility, and hardware zoning for greatest security.

Multiplatform support
QLogic's SANsurfer GUI is browser-based, providing a consistent look and feel across Windows, Solaris, and other environments.

Multiple fabrics management
The SANbox management system makes it easy to grow and partition large networks, virtually creating multiple fabrics to be configured and managed from a single console.

Device-level troubleshooting
QLogic's SANsurfer displays all the devices on private and public loops, making it easy to disable disruptive devices without interruption.

Device optimization
QLogic's SANsurfer enables port tuning to optimize selected devices on the SAN.

Partnering for Growth

When OEMs choose QLogic as their switch provider they are getting a lot more than top-performing hardware and software: they are also getting the top-performing people who are QLogic. Our ASIC engineers are years ahead of the competition in Fibre Channel experience, and our account teams are dedicated to each OEM's success. We at QLogic understand the importance of quality, cost, timeliness, and open communication—the fundamentals that make business relationships work.