Fibre/ SN 5420

[mmellet]

Can I still use my existing Fibre Channel and Ethernet infrastructure with the Cisco SN 5420?

TIA

[beth-martin]

Yes, you can use the existing technology. The Cisco SN 5420 connects your existing IP network with their existing storage network. This allows you to leverage the existing IP network for storage traffic for interconnecting SAN islands and taking storage traffic over the WAN.

[davisw]

I'm a little new to working with routers, and I need to know what fibre channeling is and can the VIP4 modules support it or not on the 7513 routers?

[rsissons]

Fibre Channel is a computer communications protocol designed to meet the many requirements related to the ever increasing demand for high performance information transfer. The goals of Fibre Channel include:

- Allowing many well-known existing channel and networking protocols to run over the same physical interface and media

- High bandwidth (100MB/s and beyond)

- Flexible topologies

- Connectivity over several kilometers

- Support for multiple data rates, media types, and connectors

In general, Fibre Channel attempts to combine the benefits of both channel and network technologies and is frequently the protocol of choice for SANs.

It is supported in 3 topologies, point to point, arbitrated loop and switched.

Only the SN5420 router currently has a fibre channel interface. There is no VIP or 7500 fibre channel support.

[behender]

Yes you can. The Cisco SN 5420 interconnects Ethernet networks to Fibre Channel-connected storage for both disk and tape storage devices. You can use the entire base of IP network management, performance, and quality of service (QoS) tools to optimize an IP storage network.