This course is intended to educate the student on Fibre Channel's protocol and hardware and its relationship to the Storage Area Network (SAN). This course will take the student from the lowest possible depths of the Fibre Channel hardware, to the transport layers of the architecture, up to and including the construction of a real SAN with real Fibre Channel hardware. You will learn details about the Fibre Channel architecture and how to analyze both loop and switch initialization sequences and protocols using real Fibre Channel analyzers. You will learn how to troubleshoot SAN designs, including FCP SCSI, large loop designs with multi-clients and shared storage, and switched networks containing both Fibre Channel and Ethernet hardware. This course mainly concentrates on the Fibre Channel aspects of the SAN and how to design, troubleshoot, analyze, and integrate the Fibre Channel hardware of the SAN.

Course Outline (click for details)

• Introduction, Concepts & Terminology

  Details
  	The need for a new interface
  	Performance trends
  	Storage trends
  	Parallel I/O limitations
  	Serial interface alternatives
  	Technology assumptions
  	Key Fibre Channel objectives
  	I/O and Network convergence

• FC-0: Physical Interface

  Details
  	Physical interface concepts
  	Optical interfaces
  	Electrical interfaces
  	Fibre Channel connectors

• FC-1: Data Link Control

  Details
  	8B/10B encoding/decoding
  	Ordered sets
  	Frame delimiters
  	Primitive signals
  	Primitive sequences
  	Link Level Protocols

• FC-2: Transport Protocol

  Details
  	Transport protocol concepts
  	Exchange management
  	Exchange multiplexing
  	Sequence management
  	Segmentation/reassembly
  	Sequence initiative
  	Frame structure
  	Frame header description
  	Optional headers
  	Frame data field
  	Error detection (CRC)
  	Link Control frames
  	Flow control
  	Link level (buffer-to-buffer)
  	Source to destination (end-to-end)
  	Classes of service

• FC-3 Fibre Channel Services

  Details
  	Common services
  	Basic link services
  	Extended link services
  	Session management
  	Login services
  	World-wide names
  	Service parameters
  	Port login trace example
  	The name server

• FC-4: Protocol Mappings

  Details
  	Protocol mapping concepts
  	Information sets
  	Protocol information units
  	SCSI-3 architectural model
  	SCSI protocol data objects
  	SCSI protocol functions
  	SCSI Fibre Channel Protocol
  	SCSI-3 mapping concepts
  	Command information set
  	Transfer ready information set
  	Data information set
  	Response information set
  	FCP information units
  	FCP command flowchart
  	Inquiry command trace
  	Write command trace

• Topology Overview

  Details
  	Topology Overview
  	Common characteristics
  	Topology comparison
  	Point-to-Point
  	Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL)
  	FC-AL characteristics
  	Loop initialization
  	Arbitration
  	Opening & closing loop circuits
  	Is the loop fault tolerant?
  	Switched Fabric
  	Fabric functions
  	Frame routing techniques
  	Fault tolerant fabrics
  	Addressing methods

Who Should Attend This seminar is focused on those responsible for designing, developing, deploying, or maintaining Fibre Channel products. Upon completion of this workshop, you will have an in-depth understanding of the details of how Fibre Channel integrates into the SAN.
Prerequisites: An understanding of current computer interfaces or networks is desirable, although not necessary.
Course Length: Approximately 4½ days with up to 16 hours hands-on lab.	Download course description (printable version)