Course Length: 3 & 4 Day Programs

Course instructional Method: Interactive Lecture, Animations, Trace Analysis

Course Description 

A group of students were asked recently to define a "SAN." Some replies included "storage area networks," "server area networks," "system area networks" and the instructor's favorite, "The latest thing to sell!" SAN is all of these things and more. This course takes a top-down approach in examining the information flow requirements levied on a FC storage network and how FC technologies meet those requirements. It identifies why organizations are moving toward NAS and SAN and the importance of FC for those deployments. It provides a comprehensive technical examination of SCSI and Fibre Channel along with the role they play in a Storage Network.

Fibre Channel (FC) continues to be the most widely implemented storage network technology on the market.  Achieving an understanding of the ins and outs of Fibre Channel and the benefits it brings enables vendors to develop FC-based products and customers to design and deploy FC-based SANs.

This course provides the most comprehensive examination of Fibre Channel technologies and topologies available today in a 3-4 day course.  As the topic list shows all of the key aspects of FC are explored from the benefits and business motivations for FC to a detailed look at the FC Architecture levels and the constructs used in FC product development.  Special attention is given to the comparison of FC methods of achieving storage networks to other technologies such as SAS, iSCSI and even P-SCSI.  The course makes complex FC concepts understandable for the most experienced FC developer to a customer who is new to this technology. 

The 3 day version provides a thorough look at all of the technology and topologies deployed today with a special focus on FC Fabrics.  More information on FC Arbitrated Loop considerations can be added on request.

Day 4 is used to explore more advanced and newer FC capabilities.

Course Outline:

• DAS, NAS, & SAN
  • Network vs. Storage
  • SNIA Shared Storage Model & Standards
  • DAS, NAS & SAN
  • DAS, NAS & SAN Hybrids
  • External & Internal SANs
  • The Virtual SCSI Cable
• Storage Networking Concepts
  • Network vs. Storage
  • ANs and ASes
  • Perspectives
  • Virtual SCSI Cables
  • Port vs. PHY
  • Switch vs. Router vs. Gateway
  • Circuit Switch vs. Packet Switch
  • Connection-Oriented vs. Connectionless
  • Layered Protocols
  • Flow Control
  • Payload Integrity
  • Names vs. Addresses
  • Segmentation, Convergence, Reassembly & Offload
  • Bit Rate, Bandwidth, Throughput
  • Semantic "Anal"ysm
  • Future & Conclusions

• Disk Hard Disk Drive (HDD)
  • Disk Technology
  • Logical Unit
  • Disk Striping
  • Cache
  • Desktop, Nearline & Enterprise Disk
  • SAS & SATA
  • ATA vs. SCSI
• Disk JBOD & RAID
  • What is JBOD?
  • What is RAID?
  • RAID Functions
  • RAID Levels
• SCSI
  • Standards
  • What is SCSI?
  • SCSI Operations
  • SCSI Configurations
  • SCSI Commands

Fibre Channel Technologies & Topologies

• FC Overview
  • What is Fibre Channel (FC)?
  • SAN vs. FC
  • FC Configurations
  • FC Benefits
  • FC Roadmap
  • FC Standards
• FC Topologies
  • FC Node, Port, Phy, Link
  • Ports Device & Switch
  • WWN - WWNN &WWPN
  • Port Types - N, NL, F, FL, E, B
  • Point-to-Point
  • FC Arbitrated Loop
  • FC Fabric Switch
• FC Names & Addresses
  • Name, Address, Route
  • WWNN, WWPN
  • WWN Formats
  • FC Addressing
  • TCP Ports
  • Address Size Comparison
  • Address Assignment
  • Name Services
  • FC Routing
  • N-Port ID Virtualization
• FC Architecture
  • OSI vs. FC
  • FC Levels FC-0, FC-1, FC-2, FC-3, FC-4
  • FC-0
    • Parallel vs. Serial
    • Serial Data Transmission
    • Serial Scaling
    • Cables & Connectors
    • Fibre vs. Copper
    • Single Mode vs. Multi-Mode
    • Speed Negotiation
    • Bit Rates
  • FC-1
    • Overview
    • 8b/10b Encode/Decode & Running Disparity
    • FC Data Structures
    • FC Transmission Words - Data & Ordered Sets
    • FC Delimiters, Primitive Signals & Sequences
    • FC PSM
    • FCAL LPSM
    • ALPA
    • Loop Initialization
    • FCAL - Hub, Loop Switch
  • FC-2
    • Overview
    • Exchange, Sequence, Frame
    • Class of Service
    • Flow Control - B-to-B, E-to-E
    • Credit
    • Error Policies & Timers
    • Basic & Extended Link Services
    • Session  Logins
    • Registered State Change Notification
  • FC-3
    • Common Services
    • FC-SP Fibre Channel Security
  • FC-4
    • Upper Layer Protocol Mapping
    • SCSI over FC
    • FC4 Enhanced Recovery
    • IP over FC
• FC HBAs
• FC Hubs & Loop Switches
• FC Bridges, Routers & Gateways
• FC Fabric Switches
  • Fabric Switch
  • Switch Nodes
  • Switch Constructs
  • FC Switch Services
  • Mesh - Full & Partial
  • Core - Edge Design
  • Configurations
  • Fan-In & Fan-Out
  • Multiple Paths
  • Persistent Binding
  • Cascading Switches
  • FSPF
  • Load Sharing
  • Trunking
  • Zoning
  • Virtual Fabrics (VSANs and LSANs)
  • Inter-Fabric Routing
  • FC Virtualization (NPIV)

Fibre Channel Advanced Topics (Day 4)

• FCIA Roadmap Expansion
• FC Physical Interface Advances
  • 8 Gbps
  • Pre-emphasis for electrical signaling
  • Scrambling
  • FC-Base T: FC over Cat5e
• FC SATA
• FC Management
• FC Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
• FC Expanded Trace Analysis
• FC Brocade Fabric Switches (Optional)
  • Building SANs
  • Core OS Features
  • ISL Trunking
  • Extended Fabrics
  • Advanced Performance Monitoring
  • Remote Switch
  • LSAN
  • Fabric Manager
  • Secure Fabric OS
  • Hardware-Enforced Zoning
  • Frame Filtering
  • Fabric Watch
  • Fabric Assist and Quick Loop
  • WEB Tools