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    of 8

    1. What are the 2 different type of SAN Switch, How does it work?

    #storage
    SAN switches fall into two main categories: Fibre Channel (FC) and Ethernet. Fibre
    Channel switches are the most common.
    Ethernet-based SAN has been growing in popularity, especially with the
    proliferation of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE). Ethernet switches and other Ethernet
    equipment are cheaper and easier to deploy and maintain because they don’t
    require specialized hardware or administrative skills, as is the case with Fibre
    Channel. In addition, 1 GbE switch ports can be aggregated to deliver higher
    throughput, providing more deployment flexibility.

    Ethernet networks also support iSCSI (Internet Small Computer Systems Interface),
    a common storage protocol built on top of TCP/IP (Transmission Control
    Protocol/Internet Protocol). Comparisons between FC SAN and Ethernet SAN
    typically come down to Fibre Channel vs. iSCSI, as it’s implemented on an Ethernet
    network.

    FC Switches:
    Fibre Channel has a reputation for delivering much better performance than
    Ethernet, especially if the Ethernet SAN is being shared with non-storage traffic
    Port Types
    Fibre Channel (FC) switches primarily utilize two port types to connect devices within a Storage
    Area Network (SAN):
    F-Ports (Fabric Ports)
    E-Ports (Expansion Ports)
    Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Switches: FCoE switches enable the
    convergence of Fibre Channel storage traffic and Ethernet data traffic onto a single
    network infrastructure. They are used in environments where both Fibre Channel
    and Ethernet connectivity are required.

    Port Type Description Connector/Cable Use Case

    Standard Ethernet
    RJ-45
    Ethernet ports for Connects FCoE
    connector,
    (Host connecting FCoE- switch to host
    Category 5e/6
    Facing) capable servers or devices
    cabling
    CNAs

    FC Ports for SFP+ or QSFP+ Connects FCoE


    (Storage connecting to a transceivers, switch to Fibre
    Facing) Fibre Channel Fiber optic Channel SAN for
    SAN (optional on broader network
    (Optional) cables
    some models) connectivity

    HP 2408 FCoE Converged Network Switch


    InfiniBand Switches: InfiniBand switches are high-speed, low-latency switches
    often used in high-performance computing (HPC) and large-scale SAN deployments.
    They provide a high-bandwidth, low-latency interconnect for storage and server
    communication.,
    iSCSI Switches: iSCSI switches are specialized Ethernet switches optimized for
    iSCSI storage traffic. They are used in SANs that utilize iSCSI protocol for block-level
    storage access over IP networks.

    What if FCOE?
    https://www.flackbox.com/fcoe-fibre-channel-ethernet-overview

    FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) is a storage protocol (or language) that lets fiber
    channel communications run over the Ethernet, specifically the 10G Ethernet.

    FCoE became possible with the advent of 10Gb Ethernet which has enough
    bandwidth to support both data and storage traffic on the same adapter.
    This has gained popularity because it allows both the regular traffic and the storage
    traffic to consolidate to just one network (instead of having one set of switches for
    fiber and one for Ethernet). This also reduces the number of cables and switches,
    thus reducing power and cooling costs as well.
    Basically (and very simply) you will use converged network adapters (CNAs), a new
    FCoE switch and a lossless Ethernet protocol. You will be able to use your 10G
    Ethernet network while preserving the fiber channel protocol. Servers connect to
    FCoE with CNAs which combine both fiber channel HBA and Ethernet NIC
    functionality on a single adapter card.
    One of the benefits of FCoE is that it preserves the high-speed data connections,
    which a SAN requires. Additionally, since you are consolidating your SAN and
    network infrastructures, your operational expenses will be lower and you will use
    less power, cabling and data center space.

    What is the Primary Benefit of the FCoE

    One of the main benefits we get from FCoE is the savings we get in our
    network infrastructure. When we have redundant native Fibre Channel
    storage and Ethernet data networks, there are 4 adapters on our hosts and 4
    cables that are connected to 4 switches.

    Native Fibre Channel


    With FCoE, we run the data and storage traffic through shared switches and
    shared ports on our hosts. Now we just have 2 adapters, 2 cables, and 2
    switches. The required infrastructure is cut in half. We save on the hardware
    costs because of this and also require less rack space, less power, and less
    cooling, which gives us more savings.

    FCoE Networks
    In FCoE, both the storage and the data traffic uses the same shared physical
    interface on our hosts – the Converged Network Adapter (CNA). The CNA
    replaces the traditional Network Interface Card (NIC) in the host. (See the
    SAN and NAS Adapter Card Types post for a quick review.)

    The storage traffic uses FCP so it requires a WWPN. The data traffic requires
    a MAC address. The way that Ethernet data traffic and FCP storage traffic
    works is totally different so how can we support them both on the same
    physical interface?

    The answer is we virtualize the physical interface into two virtual interfaces: a
    virtual NIC with a MAC address for the data traffic and a virtual HBA with a
    WWPN for the storage traffic. The storage and the data traffic are split into
    two different VLANs, a data VLAN and a storage VLAN.

    In the diagram below we have a single server, Server 1. It’s got two physical
    interface cards, CNA1 and CNA2. Both CNAs are split into separate virtual
    adapters for data and storage.

    For the data traffic, we've got virtual NIC-1 on CNA1, and virtual NIC-2 on
    CNA2. Those virtual NICs will both have MAC addresses assigned to them.
    On the switches, we're trunking the data VLAN down to the physical part on
    the CNA. We cross connect our switches for the data VLAN traffic.
    FCoE Data VLAN

    We also have virtual HBAs on the CNAs, we've got virtual HBA-1 on CNA1
    and virtual HBA-2 on CNA2. We have WWPNs on our virtual HBAs. We're
    trunking the storage VLAN down from the switches to the virtual HBAs on the
    converged network adapters.

    This time we do not cross-connect our switches because we need to comply


    with SAN best practice of physically separate Fabric A and Fabric B.
    FCoE Storage VLAN

    If we put the whole thing together, you can see that we're running both our
    data and our storage traffic over the same shared infrastructure.

    We’re trunking both the data and the storage VLANs down to single physical
    parts on our CNAs, and then that traffic is split out into a virtual NIC for the
    data traffic with our MAC address on it, and a virtual HBA for the storage
    traffic with a WWPN on it.
    FCoE Network

    Another thing we need to discuss is lossless FCoE. Fibre Channel is a


    lossless protocol, meaning it ensures that no frames are lost in transit
    between the initiator and the target. It uses a buffer to buffer credits to do this.

    Ethernet is not lossless. TCP uses acknowledgments from the receiver back
    to the sender to check that traffic reaches its destination. If an
    acknowledgment is not received then the sender will resend that packet.

    FCoE uses FCP which assumes a lossless network, so we need a way to


    ensure our storage packets are not lost while traversing the Ethernet network.
    Priority Flow Control (PFC) which is an FCoE extension for Ethernet, is used
    to ensure that lossless delivery.
    PFC works on a hop by hop rather than end to end basis, so we don't just
    need to support it on our end hosts. Each NIC and switch in the path between
    initiator and target must be FCoE capable. You can't use just standard 10Gb
    Ethernet NICs and switches, you need to use CNAs and the switches have to
    be FCoE capable.

    What is HPE Performance Cluster Manager ?


    What is Cloud Physics & Uses of it?
    HPE CloudPhysics is a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based Big Data analytics
    platform for virtualized
    infrastructures. HPE CloudPhysics provides data-driven insights to improve IT
    performance, return on investment
    (ROI), and data protection through analysis of IT metadata.
    What is the major difference between FC & SCSI Protocol

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