As we all know, large ocean going ships never collide with icebergs. However, occasionally life deals out some unexpected pleasures for us to cope with. Surviving any disaster in life is usually a lot easier if you have prepared adequately by taking into account the likely problems, solutions, and their implementation.

In this IBM Redbooks publication, we limit ourselves to those situations in which it is likely that a SAN will be deployed. We present the IBM SAN portfolio of products, going a little under the surface to show the fault tolerant features that they utilize, and then describe solutions with all these features taken into account. Each of these solutions was built on practical experience, in some cases with cost in mind, in some cases with no cost in mind. Any well-thought-out SAN design will have taken every single one of these concerns into account, and either formulated a solution for it, or ignored it, but nonetheless understanding the potential exposure.

With these points in mind, in this book we have two objectives: to position the IBM SAN products that are currently in our portfolio; and to show how those products can be configured together to build a SAN that not only allows you to survive most forms of disaster, but also provides performance benefits. So, make sure that you know what to do if you hit an iceberg!

Part 1. Survival tactics

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. SAN fabric components

Chapter 3. SAN features

Chapter 4. SAN disciplines

Chapter 5. Host Bus Adapters

Chapter 6. IBM TotalStorage SAN switches

Chapter 7. Cisco directors and switches

Chapter 8. INRANGE directors

Chapter 9. McDATA directors and switches

Chapter 10. General SAN troubleshooting tips

Part 2. Survival solutions

Chapter 11. General solutions

Chapter 12. IBM TotalStorage switch solutions

Chapter 13. Cisco director and switch solutions

Chapter 14. INRANGE director solutions

Chapter 15. McDATA director and switch solutions