The SAN fabric is an area of the network that contains routers and switches. A SAN is configured into a number of zones. A device that uses the SAN can communicate only with devices that are included in the same zones that it is in. A system requires several distinct types of zones: a system zone, host zones, and disk zones. The intersystem zone is optional.
SAN fabric function is available only if a Fibre Channel option is installed. Otherwise, this information does not apply.
In the host zone, the host systems can identify and address the nodes. You can have more than one host zone and more than one disk zone. Unless you are using a dual-core fabric design, the system zone contains all ports from all nodes in the system. Create one zone for each host Fibre Channel port. In a disk zone, the nodes identify the storage systems. Generally, create one zone for each external storage system. If you are using the Metro Mirror and Global Mirror feature, create a zone with at least one port from each node in each system; up to four systems are supported.
All communication between Lenovo Storage V series nodes is performed either through the SAN or via PCI Express (PCIe) link for nodes in the same control enclosure. All communication between Lenovo Storage V series nodes is performed through the enclosure midplane for nodes in the same control enclosure. All Lenovo Storage V series configuration and service commands are sent to the system through an Ethernet network.