Connecting together 3 QLogic 5602's??

[Patrick Keene]

I am currently involved in planning an Xsan which will involve 3 QLogic 5602 Switches connected together, and the following question has arisen:

The QLogic reccomendation for this setup is to connect 1 x 10Gb link between each switch i.e. 3 links in total. There are enough 10Gb ports to be able to connect 2 links between each switch (6 in total) and therefore have 20Gb pipes between each switch.

Will this work, or is there a reason that only 1 x 10Gb link can be used?

Many thanks,

Patrick

[ravan46]

Yes. Having two 10Gb links between each switch will work.

But you should really add up all your required bandwidth and see if you really need all that. Having 20Gb between switches might be nice to brag about, but whats the point if it won't be used?

The cables are pretty expensive too. So I'm sure you could find other places to spend the money if you didn't need that extra 3.

[ron]

I would think that latency should be a consideration when interconnecting the switches. You will want to make sure that there is only a single hop between them - especially in an Xsan enviroment.