Fibre Channel SAN Extension over IP
FCIP & iFCP Comparison
FCIP and iFCP
FCIP: One storage fabric iFCP: Two or more autonomous
stretched over multiple sites storage fabrics – one at each site
SAN
Class F, RSCNs
SAN
SAN
iFCP Sessions
SAN
Fabric Storage Traffic Fabric
Fabric #1 Fabric #2
IP Network IP Network
Site A Site B Site A Site B
• Class F, Name Server, RSCNs, • Class F, Name Server, RSCNs all
etc all compete with storage contained within each site
traffic for bandwidth
• iSNS protocol transfers name
• All sites must rely on principal server and RSCNs between fabrics
switch at one remote site
• One principal switch at each site
FCIP creates one storage fabric
You need to make sure you have sufficient bandwidth to cope with all of the
fabric traffic as well as all of the storage traffic.
iFCP all of the fabric traffic stays local.
The only thing that goes remote is the iFCP sessions (device to device traffic)