6. What is Fibre Channel Class support?
FC Class-1: Dedicated connection, full
bandwidth, and confirmed delivery
FC Class-2: Confirmed delivery
FC Class-3: “Data Gram” delivery NOT confirmed
FC Class-4: Virtual Connection, fractional
bandwidth, confirmed delivery
Fibre Channel Class Note
FC Class-1 & Class-4: Fixed routing, circuit switched,
setup and tear down required
FC Class-2 & Class-3: Adaptive routing, frame switched,
may encounter routing delay, and potential Out-of-Order
delivery
The Adaptec Fibre Card 9110G supports FC Class 3 and the
9210LP will support FC Class 2 and FC Class 3.
7. What are some of the typical applications
for Fibre Channel?
Some common Fibre Channel applications include
LAN-Free Backup, Clustering, and Shared Storage. As
the storage requirements and information needs
of companies continue to expand, these applications
are becoming increasingly common and of higher
importance.
8. What is LAN-Free backup?
LAN Free backup is one of the target market applica-
tions of Fibre Channel and for the Adaptec Fibre Card
9110G.
This solution removes backup traffic from the LAN,
relieving network congestion of storage requirements
and allowing the LAN to perform mission critical func-
tions. In addition, a LAN-Free backup solution reduces
the number of dedicated tape libraries needed for stor-
age, thereby lowering the total cost of ownership.
LAN-Free backup is also a fster and more efficient stor-
age backup method and will reduce IT resource time
and employee workloads, another cost benefit. Adaptec
is promoting a complete LAN-Free Backup solution,
with a recipe book, installation guide and technical sup-
port representatives specializing in this solution.
9. Do the 9110G and 9210LP connect
directly to copper or to optical cabling?
Using an optical or a copper GBIC, Adaptec’s Fibre
Channel cards have the flexibility of either optical or
copper external cabling, depending on the preference or
specific application needs of the customer.
10. Can standard 9-pin serial cabling be
used with the Adaptec Fibre Card 9110G
and the Adaptec Fibre Card 9210LP?
No, only special cable designed for Fibre Channel should
be used with any Fibre Channel HBA, including the
9110G and the 9210LP.
11. Can the 9110G be connected to optical
cabling for increased distances?
Yes, this adapter can be connected to short wave and
long wave optical cables via an optical GBIC.
12. What is Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop?
The FC-AL (Fibre Channel-Arbitrated Loop) topology
provides a low cost solution to attach up to 126 nodes
with hubs. FC-AL is a shared bandwidth, loop topology.
Servers can be connected to the disk loop with either
optical fiber or copper media depending on the distance
requirement.
Opportunity A1 is for a PCI host adapter connecting a
server to a mass storage subsystem in an Arbitrated Loop
topology. This opportunity requires the availability of
disk drives, A2, with a FC-AL interface. These FC-AL
drives are now available from Seagate and IBM.
2
Tape
Library
FC
Switch
Servers
with
Adaptec FC HBAs
