Xsan Topologies: Typical Topologies for Production Environments

By Peachpit Press
Dec 16, 2005

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This chapter provides three examples that show typical topologies for production environments. These topologies are guides, intended to provide a summary of the basic concepts of SAN development.

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There are numerous ways for you to implement your new SAN.

The following three examples show typical topologies for production environments. Again, these are guides, intended to provide a summary of the previously discussed information as you plan and acquire your equipment for integration.

Topology Example 1

In this example, we are using the most basic of topologies. We have a total of 3.9 TBs of storage utilizing a fully populated RAID. The SANs bandwidth availability with one fully populated Xserve RAID is 160–200 megabytes per second (MB/s). This SAN is isolated; that is, the system is not connected to an outer network. This is perfect for implementations in which highly confidential content is being edited. Also, we are not utilizing a centralized directory, so clients will be locally authenticated (the server will not be in control of the login process), and the "chatter" on the metadata network will be kept to a minimum. In order to access and setup either the Fibre Channel switch or the Xserve RAID, an additional connection must be made from a separate computer outside the network.