An HCP system with Fibre Channel switches includes the proper number of fiber optic jumper cables needed to connect the HCP G11 Nodes and the storage arrays to the Fibre Channel switches. The order includes labels that need to be applied to the ends of the fiber optic cables to identify them for support purposes.
Dedicate one set of jumper cables to connecting the HCP G11 Nodes to the top Fibre Channel switch, labeled B. Dedicate the other set of jumper cables to connecting the HCP G11 Nodes to the bottom Fibre Channel switch, labeled A. A third set of jumper cables is used to connect the Fibre Channel switches to the storage arrays.
The diagrams below show the port layout for connecting the HCP G11 Nodes and storage arrays to the Cisco MDS 9148S Fibre Channel switches.
There are two ports on the left side of the switches reserved for functions outside of communicating with the node and storage array. The ports are labeled:
- SER
- the serial port used to configure the switch.
- MGMT
- the management port used to configure the switch.
Fibre Channel ports 1-16 on the switches are reserved for connections to the HCP G11 Nodes. Fibre Channel ports 17-24 on the switches are reserved for connections to the storage arrays.
All connections between the HCP G11 Nodes and the Fibre Channel switches have redundant paths for fault tolerance. All connections between the storage arrays and the Fibre Channel switches have redundant paths across controllers for fault tolerance.
Only 24 of the ports on the switch are licensed by default. If you intend to connect more than one storage array to the switches, ensure the total number of ports required for the storage and servers does not exceed 24. It's possible for the switches to be configured with additional port licenses to expand the number of available ports per switch, but this is generally not be required.