[SunRescue] [a little OT] Fibre channel q's...

[BjornRamqvistbrt at osk.sema.se]

Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:
> 
> I often see "fibre channel" SCSI drives at VERY low prices; yet it is my
> understanding that FC is as fast or faster as other interfaces and has some
> other nice features too (like longer cable length).  I have seen some FC
> RAID cards for PCs at prices roughly equal to other RAID cards, so figure
> that that part would be about the same cost.  I don't know about SBUS cards
> for FC, RAID or otherwise.
> 
> Do all FC interfaces work with each other?  I have seen "FC-AL" and other
> acronyms banged around.
> 
> If someone has pointers where I can learn more I would be grateful.  Or post
> a reply to the list.

Well, it's just not as easy as that really. First of all, the Fibre
Channel disks are using a fairly "SCA-like" connector for the disks, for
"hot plugability". Cause of that you need a special canister, where you
connect the FC-cable, either Copper or Fiber.

The phrase "FC-AL" means "Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop", the simplest
way of connecting Fibre Channel-devices.
Not to be confused with the "Fibre Channel" used on older SPARCstorage
Array 100/200's. Those were only 25MB/s interfaces and doesn't support
any of todays advanced FC-features.
A good starting point is the Fibre Channel Industry Associations place
on the web;
http://www.fibrechannel.org/


Hope this helps...

	/Regards, Bjorn