Full mesh between 4 brocade 5000 switches

[spoulim]

Hi all,

I want to create a full mesh topology between 4 brocade fiber 5000 switches. The topology is look like the following:

1. The two of the will be installed on the server rack.

2. The other two will be installed on the storage rack.

In order to have the full mesh topology the best practise is to connect one of the 1. with the other two of the 2. or I have to interconnect and between of them.  

Any help about this and how the configuration have to be is it will be helpful.

Best regards,

Spyros

[alexey.stepanov · Accepted solution]

1) if you only have these four switches and you want to have "dual redundant" san, you'd better not connect it "full mesh". you'd better connect them "server a" <--> "storage a" and "server b" <--> "storage b".
2) if you really want to make it a full mesh, then each of your switches has to be connected to all of the other switches.
3) in reality, if you don't want to have dual redundant san (why?) and you want to have a single fabric in this place, and you really have two server switches and two storage switches, then the best topology is core-edge. your storage switches are cores, and your server switches are edges. and each core has to be connected to all edges, and each edge has to be connected to all cores. and so what you describe "connect one of the 1. with the other two of the 2." is the core-edge, at least this is how i understood your explanation :)

[spoulim]

Thanks for your quick reply Alexey. Yes I believe that the core-edge is the best solution for me and that was tried to describe in my previous post.

One more question about my topology. I have to use ISL in order to have the connection between the switches. Is it right? Or I have to create only zones between them?

Sorry for my question, but brocade is really new for me.

Thanks in advance 

[alexey.stepanov]

Yes, switch to switch connections are ISLs - Inter Switch Links.

Zones are rules describing what devices can talk to each other.