HP BladeSystem SAN Interconnects

HP BladeSystem SAN Interconnects

The Storage Area Network (SAN) interconnects within the HP BladeSystem family primarily use Fibre Channel (FC) as their favored mode of communication, which means they are also frequently referred to as Fibre Channel interconnects. Not exactly the most hip nickname, but still. Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interconnects can also be included within this family of interconnects as another mode of communication that may also be used. The main identifying factor of SAN interconnects is that they are designed for storage purposes, versus networking purposes such as with Ethernet interconnects. The SAN interconnects within the HP BladeSystem family differ from others in that they are engineered to work specifically with the HP BladeSystem line of blade enclosures – which includes both the c3000 and the c7000 – so basically, they complete each other. And when plugged into the back of these blade enclosures, the SAN interconnects are able to internally link the blade servers within the enclosure to storage drives and/or storage shelves outside of the enclosure.

While you may feel limited by communication type with SAN interconnects, there are actually a wide range of options available within the HP BladeSystem family. To begin, there is the option of various speeds, with a choice between 4 Gigabits (Gb) or 8 Gb. And from there, there are a couple of different models featuring one of these two speed options including for the 4Gb, HP 4Gb Fibre Channel Pass-Thru Module for the HP c-Class BladeSystem, Brocade 4 Gb San switch for HP c-Class BladeSystem, and for the 8Gb, Brocade 8 Gb SAN Switch for the HP c-Class BladeSystem. And I know what you might be thinking – What is Brocade doing in there? Aren’t we talking about HP? Well, Brocade and HP have actually partnered to create a SAN switch line, getting the best of both worlds when it comes to SAN technology and quality IT equipment.