Overview
Overview
Redundant isolated fabrics (fabrics without an ISL connecting them) are used to ensure that disruptions
in one fabric do not affect the other. Hosts and disk subsystems in such an environment can be configured
to ensure that at least one port remains attached to each fabric.
Basic SVC Requirements
SVC has the following requirements:
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In a redundant, dual fabric configuration, the Cisco MDS Inter-VSAN Routing (IVR) feature must be
used in order to satisfy these basic SVC requirements. IVR provides the same benefit of keeping the two
fabrics separate while providing the connectivity required to implement SVC. Refer to Cisco MDS 9000
Family Configuration Guide for more information on IVR.
Dual Fabric Prerequisites
To configure a dual fabric SAN environment using IVR and SVC, verify the following requirements:
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Sample Configuration
Figure 10-1
to configure this sample scenario is provided after the illustration.
Cisco MDS 9000 Family SAN Volume Controller Configuration Guide
10-2
All SVC nodes must be able to communicate with each other in the management VSAN.
All SVC nodes must be able to use the same preferred target controller port for a given Mdisk.
Every VSAN must be assigned a unique number. This number should not be used for any other
VSAN in both fabrics. This ensures that the IVR VSAN is not carried across any other
non-dedicated dual-fabric E port.
The same IVR configuration must be configured in each switch in each fabric.
The default zone in the transit VSAN should be set to deny.
The transit VSAN must only be dedicated for the dual fabric purpose.
New interfaces should not be added to this VSAN once the configuration is implemented.
Trunk Mode must be enabled for the transit VSAN.
Route advertisement must be disabled for the transit VSAN.
The Domain ID for the transit VSAN must be static and domain merges must be disabled on this
VSAN.
Topology discovery must be disabled for the transit VSAN.
displays a dual fabric SAN environment example used in this configuration. The procedure
Chapter 10
Configuring a Dual Fabric SAN Environment
78-16119-01, Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 1.3