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2 Fibre Channel Hardware, Requirements, and Restrictions

This chapter contains information about the supported Fibre Channel hardware and firmware, and the configuration requirements and restrictions.

2.1 Fibre Channel Hardware Supported for Cluster Storage

Table 2-1 lists the Fibre Channel hardware that is supported for cluster storage by TruCluster Production Server Software Version 1.6 and TruCluster Available Server Software Version 1.6.

Table 2-1: Fibre Channel Hardware Supported for Cluster Storage

Device	Part Number	Minimum Firmware Revision
KGPSA-BC PCI-to-Fibre Channel host adapter	380574-001	V2.20x2
DS-KGPSA-CA PCI-to-Fibre Channel host adapter	168794-B21	DD302a1.awc
DS-DSGGA-AA 8-port Fibre Channel switch	380591-B21	1.6b
DS-DSGGA-AB 16-port Fibre Channel switch	380578-B21	1.6b
DS-DSGGB-AA 8-port Fibre Channel switch	158222-B21	2.03a
DS-DSGGB-AB 16-port Fibre Channel switch	158223-B21	2.03a
DS-SWXHB-07 7-port Fibre Channel Hub	234453-001	NA
RA8000 with dual-redundant HSG80 array controller	380560-B21	ACS V8.4 or V8.5 ^{[Footnote 1]}
ESA12000 with dual-redundant HSG80 array controller	380580-001	ACS V8.4 or V8.5 ^{[Footnote 1]}

2.2 Fibre Channel Requirements and Restrictions

Table 2-2 lists the supported AlphaServer^TM systems with Fibre Channel and the number of KGPSA-BC or KGPSA-CA PCI-to-Fibre Channel adapters that are supported on each system.

Table 2-2: AlphaServer Systems Supported for Fibre Channel

AlphaServer	KGPSA-BC or KGPSA-CA (Fabric)	KGPSA-CA (Arbitrated Loop)
AS800	2	-
AS1200	4	-
AS4x00	4	-
AS8x00 ^{[Footnote 2]} ^{[Footnote 3]}	32	-
DS10 ^{[Footnote 4]}	2	2
DS20, DS20E	4	2
ES40	4	2
GS60 ^{[Footnote 2]} ^{[Footnote 3]}, GS60E ^{[Footnote 2]} ^{[Footnote 3]}	32	-
GS140 ^{[Footnote 2]} ^{[Footnote 3]}	32	-

The following requirements and restrictions apply to the use of Fibre Channel with the TruCluster Software Products:

The root (/) and swap filesystems are not supported on Fibre Channel storage.

A maximum of four member systems is supported in fabric configurations. A maximum of two member systems is supported in arbitrated loop configurations.

The only supported Fibre Channel adapters are the KGPSA-BC and KGPSA-CA PCI-to-optical Fibre Channel host bus adapters. The KGPSA-BC adapter is supported in fabric configurations only; the KGPSA-CA adapter is supported in both fabric and arbitrated loop configurations.

A host is only allowed to have one KGPSA connected to each switch, switch zone, or hub.

The TruCluster Software Products support a fabric configuration of up to three cascaded switches with a maximum of two hops between switches. The maximum hop length is 10 km longwave single-mode or 500 meters shortwave multimode Fibre Channel cable.

The TruCluster Software Products support only single-hub arbitrated loop configurations; that is, there are no cascaded hubs on the same SCSI bus.

The only supported Fibre Channel switches are the 8/16 Port DSGGA or DSGGB.

The only supported Fibre Channel hub is the 7-port SWXHB-07. The SWXHB-07 has clock and data recovery on each port. It also features Giga Bit Interface Converter (GBIC) transceiver-based port connections for maximum application flexibility. The hub is hot pluggable and is unmanaged.

The Fibre Channel switches support both shortwave (GBIC-SW) and longwave (GBIC-LW) GBIC modules. The GBIC-SW module supports 50-micron multimode fibre cables with the standard subscriber connector (SC) in lengths up to 500 meters. The GBIC-LW supports 9-micron, single-mode fibre cables with the SC in lengths up to 10 kilometers.
The KGPSA-BC PCI-to-optical Fibre Channel host bus adapter and the HSG80 RAID controller support the 50-micron Gigabit Link Module (GLM) for fibre connections. The KGPSA-CA adapter also supports only shortwave multimode connections. Therefore, only the 50-micron multimode fibre optical cable is supported for cluster configurations. You must install GBIC-SW GBICs in the Fibre Channel switches and hubs for cluster use.

The Fibre Channel RAID Array 8000 (RA8000) midrange departmental storage subsystem and Fibre Channel Enterprise Storage Array 12000 (ESA12000) house two HSG80 dual-channel controllers. There are provisions for six UltraSCSI channels.

The TruCluster Software Products support only disk devices attached to the HSG80 Fibre Channel to Six Channel UltraSCSI Array controller. No tape devices are supported.

Tru64 UNIX Version 4.0F limits the number of SCSI targets (whether they are systems or storage controller ports) on each shared SCSI bus (whether implemented in parallel SCSI or Fibre Channel) to eight.

Because Tru64 UNIX Version 4.0F also limits the logical unit numbers (LUNs) per SCSI target to eight, each HSG80 controller port can present only eight storage devices. The customer can define the number of LUNs presented on each of the two SCSI targets allocated to the HSG80 ports, depending on the application requirements.

A storage array with dual-redundant HSG80 controllers is two targets and consumes four ports on a switch or hub.

Each KGPSA is one target.

The TruCluster Software Products only support the HSG80 enabled for transparent failover mode.

The HSG80 documentation refers to the controllers as Controller A (top) and Controller B (bottom). Each controller provides two ports (left and right). (The HSG80 documentation refers to these ports as Port 1 and Port 2, respectively.) In transparent failover mode, only one left port (Port 1) and one right port (Port 2) are active at any given time.
With transparent failover enabled, assuming that the left port of the top controller and the right port of the bottom controller are active, if the top controller fails, its functions will automatically fail over to the bottom controller and vice versa.

You can configure which controller presents each HSG80 storage element (unit) to the cluster. Ordinarily, the left port of either controller serves the units that are designated D0 through D99, and the right port serves those that are designated D100 through D199. However, as previously mentioned, because only eight units can be presented through either controller, you can configure only units that are designated D0 through D7 and D100 through D107 in this cluster.