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FC-AL topology in a SAN environment

SAN expert Greg Schulz describes the FC-AL topology in a SAN environment.

Greg Schulz
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Published: 06 Feb 2007
What is the FC-AL topology in a SAN environment?
Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) is an early shared access, shared bandwidth topology with devices attached via a hub or connected via loop or ring, similar to a token ring network.

FC-AL for the most part has been replaced by switched Fibre Channel (FC-SW) for server attachment with some legacy storage devices still supporting loop attachment provided by some switches. Some storage systems still utilize loop attachment of disk drives to storage controllers with servers attaching via FC-SW. However the trend is to move from FC-AL based "back-end" storage to some form of switched "back-end" disk drives on storage systems.

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Questions and answers from SAN School Storage area networks (SANs) have the ability to save a company money, hasten backups and help consolidate the data center. But, a SAN is not to be left alone. It's a complex, growing, breathing entity that constantly needs to be tweaked and upgraded.

So what is SAN School? If this is the first time you are asking yourself, "What's a SAN?" -- SAN School is for you. If you are implementing your first SAN and need implementation and migration help -- SAN School is for you. If you are far along in the SAN process and need to extend your SANs or connect SAN islands -- SAN School is for you.

The authors of "Storage Area Networks for dummies", Christopher Poelker and Alex Nikitin, are your SAN School professors. Through 15-minute Webcast lessons, they covered SANs from A to Z, from what a SAN is, to connecting those last nodes for optimal performance.

SearchStorage.com readers sent Chris and Alex received a lot of questions during each SAN School Webcast lesson. Since each lesson only lasted 15 minutes, they weren't able to answer all of your questions. Thanksfully, though, Chris Poelker was kind enough to answer them after each lesson.

The editors of SearchStorage.com have taken each of your questions and Chris's answers and posted all of them for you here. Also, if you missed any of teh SAN School Webcasts, click here

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