Dell PowerVault 35F (Fibre Channel Bridge) - Manual (Page 9)

Introducing the PowerVault 35F: Dell PowerVault 35F User's Guide
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Distance – SCSI cable length from hosts to devices is increased from 25m to 10,000m, facilitating remote or disaster
tolerant sites.
Performance – 100 Mbytes/sec Fibre Channel (200 Mbytes/sec bi-directional) offers increased bandwidth when
distributing data across multiple SCSI devices.
Reliability – Low error rates, robust error recovery and flow control provide an enterprise with reliable data delivery.
Scalability – Point-to-point links can be expanded to multi-initiator links supporting interconnected servers, tape
drives and tape libraries.
Flexibility – The PowerVault 35F allows Fibre Channel initiators to communicate with SCSI targets.
Consolidation – The PowerVault 35F allows multiple servers to share storage resources, including tape drives and
tape libraries.
Centralization – The PowerVault 35F enables existing storage to be moved to a central location to simplify
management and maintenance, and to improve security.
Lower TCO – Improving storage management, maintenance and security can lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
for enterprise storage.
How the PowerVault 35F Works
The PowerVault 35F is a storage bridge that translates Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) to and from two SCSI buses so
devices on these two types of media can communicate with each other. It attaches to a Fibre Channel host, and
transfers the command, data, and status information to SCSI targets. The host passes packets to SCSI targets as if the
PowerVault 35F were just another device along the path.
The PowerVault 35F provides connections for two SCSI buses into a Fibre Channel environment. It takes advantage of
Fibre Channel’s ability to encapsulate SCSI protocol packets to allow a host with a Fibre Channel adapter to access
SCSI peripheral devices transparently over a Fibre Channel connection.
Figure 3. Fibre Channel-to-SCSI configuration
Figure 3 shows a Fibre Channel-to-SCSI configuration. Through the PowerVault 35F bridge, any host on the Fibre
Channel loop can access the tape drive and library on each SCSI bus.