Extending SAN Value with Brocade Multiprotocol Routing Services

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1 WHITE PAPER STORAGE AREA NETWORK Extending Value with Brocade Multiprotocol Routing Services Unique software offerings provide flexible options for deploying a variety of solutions such as consolidated tape backup, data migration, and secure resource sharing.

2 As Storage Area Networks (s) play a more prominent role in today s data centers, many organizations are searching for new ways to maximize their investments and increase both scalability and efficiency to support continued business growth. One of the best ways to accomplish this goal is to extend benefits across all of an enterprise s functional, departmental, and geographical resources. To support this effort, Brocade has developed versatile and powerful multiprotocol routing services that extend functionality throughout the data center and beyond. These services include the FC-FC Routing Service, FCIP Tunneling Service, and iscsi Gateway Service all running on the Brocade Multiprotocol Router. By supporting these services on a single platform, the Multiprotocol Router helps provide a flexible foundation for implementing a utility computing infrastructure and efficient Information Lifecycle Management (ILM). Together, the Multiprotocol Router and services enable the deployment of new solutions for tasks such as tape backup consolidation, data migration, and resource sharing in a secure, non-disruptive manner. Multiprotocol Routing Services Overview As organizations continue to deploy fabrics and grow their overall environment, they increasingly require innovative solutions that help extend the benefits of their s throughout the enterprise. To address this need, Brocade has developed a unique set of multiprotocol routing services that increase the functionality, scalability, and versatility of today s s. These new services include: Brocade FC-FC Routing Service for connectivity Brocade FCIP Tunneling Service for extension over distance Brocade iscsi Gateway Service for sharing Fibre Channel resources with iscsi servers Delivered on the Brocade Multiprotocol Router, these services provide new options for connecting islands and extending benefits over multiple networks, to larger sizes, and across longer distances. A key aspect of this approach is the unprecedented capability to deliver any of these services on a port-by-port basis within the Multiprotocol Router. By integrating multiple services on a single platform, the Multiprotocol Router supports centralized management within a familiar Brocade environment. 2

3 The primary advantage of this approach is the ability to connect devices between two or more fabrics without merging those fabrics thereby providing a more flexible storage networking foundation. As a result, these services can help solve a variety of business requirements, such as: Connecting environments across multiple geographies, functions, and departments without sacrificing security or control Increasing connectivity and scalability while simplifying management, troubleshooting, and fault isolation Enabling low-cost SCSI-based servers to access valuable resources Leveraging IP networks to support fabric-based business continuance solutions over longer distances Reducing costs and improving asset utilization through more efficient resource sharing FC-FC Routing Service for Interconnecting Islands One of the basic requirements for today s organizations is the need to create Fibre Channel s that can grow in a scalable, cost-effective manner. For example, organizations with multiple islands would like to connect them into a more unified environment. Unfortunately, many organizations have not attempted to merge their islands for fear that the administrative workload, risk, and expense would not justify the benefit of enhanced connectivity. However, the new Brocade FC-FC Routing Service is changing that perception. Running on the Multiprotocol Router, this service enables devices located on separate fabrics to communicate without the need to merge the fabrics into a large environment. By using this service, organizations can interconnect devices without having to redesign and reconfigure their entire environment, thereby eliminating the potential risks and costs of downtime. The resulting routed network would consist of multiple individual fabrics that form one storage network connectivity model, known as a Meta. In this way, FC-to-FC routing provides key strategic advantages, such as: Simplifying design, implementation, and management through centralization Providing a seamless and secure way to share resources across multiple s without the complexity of physically merging those s Creating a more unified environment with easier interconnection and support for s and resources purchased from different storage vendors Reducing disruptions created by events such as data migration, storage or server consolidation, migration to production environments, and application rebalancing between fabrics When devices on different fabrics are allowed to communicate through the Multiprotocol Router, the resulting connectivity group is known as a Logical (L). Ls enable selective and secure resource sharing across multiple s by leveraging current zoning tools and methodologies. In addition to optimizing resource utilization, this approach helps improve scalability by: Minimizing the risk and complexity of large fabrics Right-sizing s based on application and business requirements Simplifying management and fault isolation Protecting and extending current technology investments since Ls require no changes to existing switches or attached edge devices 3

4 Brocade Multiprotocol Routing Services at a Glance FC-FC Routing Service: Enables Fibre Channel-to-Fibre Channel routing to scale enterprise infrastructures and optimize resource utilization Supports selective sharing of resources through Logical s (Ls) to improve security and manageability FCIP Tunneling Service: Seamlessly and reliably extends s over longer distances across MAN/WAN IP networks Enables geographical connectivity and sharing of resources to support disaster recovery and business continuance solutions Works in combination with FC-to-FC routing functions to keep connected fabrics from reconfiguring or merging iscsi Gateway Service: Provides iscsi-to-fibre Channel protocol conversion capabilities Enables low-cost, SCSI-based servers to share Fibre Channel resources FCIP Tunneling Service for Distance Extension The Brocade FCIP Tunneling Service enables organizations to extend their Fibre Channel s over longer distances that would be impractical or expensive with native Fibre Channel links, or in situations where dark fiber links would be impractical but in which IP WAN connectivity already exists. This service offers the advantage of integrating the FCIP link within the Multiprotocol Router an easier and more cost-effective deployment and management method than an external gateway. In addition, the FC-to-FC routing function enables two fabrics connected to an FCIP link to remain separate rather than merging them into a single fabric, which would permit any-to-any connectivity between all devices. As a result, this combined FC-to-FC routing and FCIP approach enables a much more secure distance-connectivity solution for disaster recovery applications. iscsi Gateway Service for Low-Cost Connectivity to Resources The Brocade iscsi Gateway Service enables organizations to integrate low-cost Ethernetconnected servers into their Brocade Fibre Channel s by using the iscsi protocol. This capability enables SCSI-based servers to leverage Fibre Channel resources, thereby improving asset utilization and enabling new applications such as centralized backup. In many cases, hosts do not need the performance or reliability of Fibre Channel but could still benefit from shared resources and the management simplicity of a infrastructure. This level of integration greatly reduces the expense of connecting low-cost servers to centrally managed storage within a. Multiprotocol Routing Services Deployment Scenarios The following deployment scenarios help illustrate these services in the areas of: connectivity Tape backup consolidation Long-distance extension for business continuance Low-cost server connectivity to resources Connectivity As many organizations grow their environments, they would like to connect any number of independent islands in an effort to share resources, reduce complexity, and centralize management workload. However, scaling a environment by merging multiple fabrics has typically been too difficult and risky to justify the benefit of increased connectivity. Unfortunately, the need to increase port counts and share resources across geographical and functional boundaries will not disappear anytime soon. Moreover, the need to ensure secure connectivity for selected resources especially in heterogeneous environments further compounds the troubleshooting, fault isolation, and management challenges posed by large s. FC-to-FC routing addresses these issues by enabling organizations to connect devices in different s without merging the fabrics. Using this capability, organizations can share resources across multiple s and scale beyond current port count support constraints. In addition, they can more easily support multiple firmware revisions and connect devices between s purchased from and supported by different OEMs as their business needs dictate (see Figure 1). 4

5 Vendor 2 Figure 1. Greater connectivity for heterogeneous s. Vendor 3 Vendor 1 Vendor 4 This level of connectivity gives organizations a powerful tool for reducing or even eliminating disruptions associated with many common operational events, such as: Migration to new storage, where Multiprotocol Routers can be used to migrate data from 1 Gbit/sec storage arrays to 2 Gbit/sec systems Data center consolidation, where Multiprotocol Routers can enable data movement between locations Storage and application rebalancing between fabrics, where Multiprotocol Routers can connect devices in previously isolated s Data migration between test/development s and production s, enabling data movement between physically or logically separated environments Data migration or sharing between s containing different vendors or firmware releases There are many benefits to this type of approach. Most prominently, organizations can scale their growing environments much more efficiently and maximize the value of high-end resources. By connecting devices in different s without merging the s, organizations can support secure, selective resource sharing through Ls. In addition, centralization makes it easier to manage equipment from multiple OEMs, which increases operational flexibility and enables the deployment of a best-in-class environment. Tape Backup Consolidation With corporate information continuing to grow at unprecedented levels, organizations face an escalating amount of data to store and manage. Unfortunately, backup resources are often scarce and expensive, in terms of both staffing and equipment. Especially in heterogeneous environments, backup operations can quickly become both cumbersome and timeconsuming. Moreover, many organizations find it increasingly difficult to incorporate backup functions in highly distributed environments and fail to capitalize on this data movement function as a cost-effective business continuance solution. 5

6 To address this problem, organizations can utilize FC-to-FC routing functions to consolidate their backup activities in a environment. By centralizing the backup of multiple s in a single location, they can streamline the overall backup process and help ensure that both data and networks remain highly available. Additional benefits include reduced tape drive requirements, fewer idle resources, better overall utilization of tape libraries, and the ability to leverage off-peak network connectivity. A centralized backup architecture also optimizes the value of backup devices and resources, reduces management overhead, and increases asset utilization. The ability to share a tape library fabric without merging disk fabrics improves the overall flexibility and quality of management (see Figure 2). In addition, this approach saves money by eliminating the need to deploy separate Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) on every backup server on every fabric. Taking advantage of these benefits, organizations can implement more cost-effective business continuance solutions to protect their critical information assets. Figure 2. A centralized tape pool without merging disk fabrics. Tape Disk s Long-Distance Extension for Business Continuance As data becomes an increasingly valuable business asset, organizations need better ways to protect it and ensure that it is available to all the people and applications that need it. In fact, one of the most common requirements is the need to store and recover data over longer distances as part of an overall business continuance solution. Unfortunately, organizations that want to share resources and move data over geographical boundaries face the complexity of merging resources and the distance limitations of native Fibre Channel networks. To address this problem, the FCIP Tunneling Service enables remote devices to connect to s by leveraging existing IP WAN infrastructure for longer-distance connectivity (see Figure 3). As a result, organizations can share resources and move data between geographies much more efficiently. Integrating an FCIP tunneling solution within the Brocade framework simplifies overall manageability by minimizing protocol conversion events. This standardsbased FCIP approach also helps protect technology investments while increasing operational flexibility. Another key advantage of the Brocade approach is that the FCIP implementation, in combination with the FC-to-FC routing function, does not require connected fabrics to merge or reconfigure. As a result, organizations can extend remote replication and backup functions over longer distances through a single platform hosting fabric-based applications. This approach helps save money by increasing asset utilization, as well as reducing management, training, and troubleshooting costs while providing a flexible, cost-effective foundation for utility computing. 6

7 Production s Figure 3. Long-distance connectivity over existing IP infrastructure. IP WAN FCIPs Business Continuance Low-Cost Server Connectivity to Resources Because of cost constraints or technical requirements, some organizations have chosen not to include certain servers in their environments. However, these organizations could greatly benefit by having a more cost-effective way to share Fibre Channel resources with low-cost servers in an easy-to-manage, unified environment. To address this requirement, iscsi-to-fibre Channel protocol conversion provides a standards-based iscsi integration solution within the Brocade management framework. The primary benefit is that low-cost servers can access centrally managed Fibre Channel resources (see Figure 4). This approach leverages existing Ethernet infrastructure and staff knowledge to simplify implementation and management. It also reduces costs by eliminating the need to purchase HBAs in order for servers to access resources. As a result, it provides an easy-to-implement and cost-effective solution for introducing utility computing to the enterprise. iscsi Servers on Ethernet Figure 4. SCSI-based servers accessing shared resources. Fibre Channel s For More Information For more information about the Brocade Multiprotocol Router and Brocade multiprotocol routing services, visit 7

8 WHITE PAPER Corporate Headquarters San Jose, CA USA T: (408) European Headquarters Geneva, Switzerland T: Asia Pacific Headquarters Singapore T: Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 01/07 GA-WP Brocade, the Brocade B-weave logo, Fabric OS, File Lifecycle Manager, MyView, Secure Fabric OS, SilkWorm, and StorageX are registered trademarks and the Brocade B-wing symbol and Tapestry are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. FICON is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or services of their respective owners. Notice: This document is for informational purposes only and does not set forth any warranty, expressed or implied, concerning any equipment, equipment feature, or service offered or to be offered by Brocade. Brocade reserves the right to make changes to this document at any time, without notice, and assumes no responsibility for its use. This informational document describes features that may not be currently available. Contact a Brocade sales office for information on feature and product availability. Export of technical data contained in this document may require an export license from the United States government.