Storage Area Networks For Dummies®

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Part IV: SAN Management and Troubleshooting
system you can use to interconnect your components without having to run
new cabling every time you want to add or change something in your SAN
layout. With patch panels, you hook up all the connections on each of your
components to the ports on the panels. You run the fiber-optic cables from
your servers’ HBAs to a patch panel as well. All cabling is run en masse to the
backs of these centrally located panels. When you want to connect components
to your servers, you use short fiber-optic cables (patches), usually less
than 3 meters long (about 10 feet), to patch the ports from your arrays to the
ports of your switches to the ports for your HBAs.
Figure 11-2 shows how a typical patch-panel solution connects your SAN
components without requiring you to lift a floor tile or roll a spool of cable
across the floor. Another benefit of using a patch panel is that running fiberoptic
cable on a one-by-one basis can be very expensive. In larger data centers,
the wiring is typically done by electricians — who, as we all know, cost
money. The fewer times electricians have to come in to put in more cables,
the better. Running a group of cables in one shot from the very beginning is
much cheaper and faster than doing it one by one later.
Patch panels providing
centralized connectivity
SAN switches
Figure 11-2:
Using patch
panels is
efficient,
cost effective,
and
flexible.
Storage array(s)
Patch cables are short
Fibre Channel cables
Server
Server
Patch-panel systems also make things very flexible. Now that you have all the
endpoints of your SAN components in one place, you can easily control what
talks to what by using the short, easy-to-manage patch cables.