LAN-Free Backup for High Availability SANs

A New SSF SAN Solution

Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What are you announcing?
A. Compaq Computer Corporation, IBM Corporation including Tivoli software, Brocade Communications
Systems Inc, Emulex Corporation, JNI Corporation, and QLogic Corporation have worked together to create a
new set of eleven Open SAN Solution variations that enhances multivendor interoperability in the storage
networking marketplace. This solution set enables customers to create SANs based on Brocade switches
(including those rebranded by Compaq and IBM) that utilize both IBM and Compaq disk storage, and both
IBM and Compaq tape storage. In addition, backup software from both Veritas and IBM-Tivoli is used to give
the customer a choice of backup software. These new open SAN solutions represent these companies
ongoing efforts to enhance the level of storage networking interoperability. These solutions incorporate
products from each company, and are fully supported by each company.
Q2. It's newsworthy that storage vendors normally competing for customers are working together.
What else is newsworthy about these activities?
This is the first SSF solution set to come to the market since the original solutions by the founding
members of the SSF were announced earlier in June of this year.
This is the first SSF solution announcement to include HBA vendor companies as official participants.
Emulex Corporation, JNI Corporation, and QLogic Corporation are all participants.
This is the first SSF solution set to include tape storage. The IBM 3494 tape library with 3590E11 drives
and the Compaq TL891 tape library with DLT drives were used.
This is the first SSF solution set to include tape backup software. IBM-Tivoli Storage Manager and
Veritas NetBackup and Backup Exec were used.
Q3. Why did these industry vendors come together to work on this solution?
A. Actually, this work started in July, 2000, before the SNIA-SSF was formed and has been ongoing until just
recently. Compaq and IBM heard our customers complaining about the lack of interoperability of products
across different vendors and realized the benefits of having their respective products interoperate. They
announced an Interoperability Initiative between their respective companies at that time and have been
working on these and other related solutions since then.
Q4. Is this announcement related to the SSF announcement made this past summer?
A. This announcement is related to the initial SSF announcement in that this is further evidence of our efforts
to increase the level of multivendor interoperability in storage networking. However, this particular solution
set was initiated prior to the creation of the SSF. It is being brought to the SSF now in order to get it included
in the SSF Registry of Supported Solutions and to make it publicly available for customer consideration.
Q5. If this work was initiated in July, 2000, why is it just now being brought to the SSF?
A. The SNIA SSF was created in June, 2001. Since that time the forum has been working on the formal
processes that they will use to Accept and Approve submissions for new solutions. Those processes just got
implemented and became operational on November 29. We documented this solution set and submitted it to
the SSF Review Board on December 5. In addition, it is important to note that this solution set includes
eleven different variations, which of course means that its qualification cycle was quite time consuming.

Q6. How is the solution set announced today different than the first set of solutions to come out of
SSF as was announced in June?
A. This solution set does not include all of the disk vendors that were participants in the initial solutions, but it
is quite significant since it adds Compaq and IBM tape storage and Veritas and Tivoli tape backup software to
provide a complete end-to-end solution, where the original solutions were limited to disk subsystems and their
hosts coexisting in separate data zones on the SAN.
Q7. Tell me more about the solution set announced today.
A. The principal characteristics of these solutions include:
Homogeneous, redundant fabrics using cascaded switches
Disk storage in separate data zones
Path failover for disk accesses
High-availability SAN end to end
Tape storage shared between both disk data zones
Choice of two competing backup software applications for performing LAN-free backup
Q8. The White Paper mentions that these solutions satisfy the SSF criteria for both Competitive
Solution Sets and Companion Solution Sets. Whats the difference between these two different
types of solutions?
A. A Competitive Solution Set consists of products in an interoperable configuration from at least four different
vendors where at least two of the products directly compete with one another. A simple example is an
interoperable configuration with a host from Company A, a switch from Company B, a disk storage device
from Company C and a competing disk storage device from Company D. Here there are four products from
four different vendors and two of the products directly compete with one another.
A Companion Solution Set consists of a matched pair of solutions, each in an interoperable configuration
with products from at least four different vendors, and that are identical except for the substitution of one
competing product of the same type. A simple example is where one configuration contains a host from
Company A, a switch from Company B, disk and tape storage devices from Company C, and a
backup/restore software application from Company D. The matched pair configuration could contain the
exact same products from Companies A, B, and C, and a competing backup/restore software application from
Company E.
Q9. There are a total of eleven variations in this solution set. What distinguishes one variation from
the next?
A. Of the eleven variations, three are Competitive and eight are Companion solutions.
The three Competitive variations are as follows:
WinNT single server, IBM and Compaq disk, Compaq tape, Veritas BackupExec
Win2K single server, IBM and Compaq disk, Compaq tape, Veritas Netbackup
Sun Solaris V7.0 single server, IBM and Compaq disk (without backup)
The eight Companion variations are as follows:
WinNT dual server, IBM and Compaq disk, Compaq tape, Veritas Netbackup
WinNT dual server, IBM and Compaq disk, Compaq tape, IBMs Tivoli Storage Manager
WinNT single server, IBM and Compaq disk, IBM tape, Veritas BackupExec
WinNT single server, IBM and Compaq disk, IBM tape, IBMs Tivoli Storage Manager
Win2K dual server, IBM and Compaq disk, Compaq tape, Veritas Netbackup
Win2K dual server, IBM and Compaq disk, Compaq tape, IBMs Tivoli Storage Manager
Sun Solaris V8.0 single server, IBM and Compaq disk, IBM tape, Veritas Netbackup
Sun Solaris V8.0 single server, IBM and Compaq disk, IBM tape, IBMs Tivoli Storage Manager
Q10. Is any new technology involved?
A. No. All hardware and software from the solution set announced today has been generally available by the
different vendors for some time and have been amply proven in production environments.
Q11. Are these solutions available to SNIA customers only or to all customers?

A. All customers. Note that this solution is registered under SNIA, but not marketed, sold or supported by
SNIA. The system vendors IBM and Compaq are fully responsible for selling and supporting these solutions.
Q12. How does this solution save customers time/money?
A. Todays storage customers want the ability to create SANs based on multiple vendor offerings. Solutions
that come out of the SSF provide customers with increased flexibility for networked storage infrastructures,
reduced costs from consolidating SAN islands, greater investment protection and maximized value of storage
networking technology. Customers can now deploy heterogeneous SANs from multiple suppliers with
interoperability and improved customer support.
Q13. What type of customer do you anticipate will be interested in this offering?
A. Customers that either have or desire to have both IBM and Compaq disk storage in their storage
networking configuration.
Q14. When will the solution set begin to ship? Will it be available worldwide?
A. These solutions are available to customers today worldwide.
Q15. What hardware and software are included in the solution set?
Fibre Channel Fabric
Brocade Silkworm 2250
Brocade Silkworm 2400
Brocade Fabric OS
Brocade Zoning
Tape Storage
IBM 3494 Tape Library with 3590E tape drives
Compaq TL891 Tape Library with DLT tape drives
Disk Storage Array
IBM Enterprise Storage Server 2105-F20
Compaq MA8000
HBA Model and OS Support
QLogic QLA 2200Fused on Windows NT and Windows 2000
Emulex LP-8000 used on Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Sun Solaris v8.0
JNI FC64-1063N used on Sun Solaris v8.0
JNI FC64-1063N used on Sun Solaris V7.0
JNI FCI-1063 used on Sun Solaris V7.0
Operating Systems
Solaris V7.0
Solaris V8.0
Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6
Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6a
Windows 2000 Advanced Server w/Service Pack 1
Application Software:
IBMs Tivoli Storage Manager 4.1
VERITAS Netbackup 3.4
Path Management Software

Compaq Secure Path v3.1

IBMs Subsystem Device Driver (SDD) v1.2.0.5, v1.3.0.0. v1.3.0.1
Volume Management Software
Compaq Enterprise Volume Manager v1.1a
IBMs Subsystem Device Driver (SDD) v1.2.0.5, v1.3.0.0. v1.3.0.1
Other Software
Compaq StorageWorks Solution Software v8.5c, v8.6
Q16. This solution includes Veritas software, but Veritas is not listed as one of the participating
companies in this announcement. Why is that?
A. Compaq and IBM initiated this interoperability effort in the summer of 2000 a full year before the creation
of the SSF. The requisite testing for these solutions was performed entirely by Compaq and IBM. By the time
the SSF was formed, most of the solution configurations had been disassembled and reconfigured for other
testing. Therefore, it was not feasible to reassemble the configurations so that Veritas could officially qualify
these solutions.
Q17. Since Veritas is not an official participant in these solutions, what happens if we encounter
problems with the Veritas software? How will we get support?
A. The configurations that are used in these solutions are fully supported by the participating companies. The
only impact of not having Veritas as an official participant is that Veritas is not contractually obliged to directly
contact any other vendors in the course of resolving a problem. All of the official participants of these
solutions are obliged to work together when needed to resolve a customers problem - without going back to
the customer and telling him that the problem is with one of the other vendors.
Q18. Are there specific challenges that this solution will solve?
A. The challenges addressed by this solution set are primarily those involved in the time, effort and expense
that customers must manage in order to configure and operate a fully functional multivendor SAN. With these
solutions, the participating vendors have done the hard part, so customers have the assurance that these
solutions will work and the hardware and software that make up these solutions will interoperate. In addition,
the participating vendors will offer customer support to all customers that decide to purchase such a solution.
Q19. What are the criteria for HBAs being included in a supported solution?
A. The configurations selected are existing tested configurations by the various storage/system vendors.
These tested configurations from each vendor are then brought together in a multivendor environment and
tested for interoperability.
Q20. Are any of the HBAs running at 2Gb/s?
A. No. The tested configurations are all existing 1Gb/s solutions. However, all the HBA manufacturers
involved provide 2Gb/s solutions. We expect 2Gb/s SSF supported solutions to be available in the coming
year.
Q21. How can I manage my SAN if I use HBAs from different vendors?
A. The SNIA Fibre Channel Working Group (FCWG) developed an HBA management API that has been
adopted as the Annex A to the T11 FC-MI specification. This API is supported by all the SSF HBA
manufacturers included in these solutions and provides a common library support for those SAN management
application vendors who have developed to the API.

Q22. Im concerned about my SAN scaling. Does the HBA have any impact?
A. By definition, the concept of a SAN allows for scaling, yet there are some very important considerations
that need to be made to ensure performance and lower total cost of ownership as customers scale and
extend the life of their SAN. The HBA is a critical element in the configuration as it processes the storage
I/Os and offloads the host CPU. Another consideration is to plan for the life of a SAN and explore not only
how well the HBA scales with the SAN, but the ease with which software and hardware can be upgraded.
Q23. What is the SSF?
A. The SSF stands for the Supported Solutions Forum. The Supported Solutions Forum is a cooperative
group of companies within the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) that promotes customer
adoption of multivendor storage networking solutions by providing assurances of working configurations
supported by vendors.
In support of the SNIA goals, the Supported Solutions Forum was established in the summer of 2001, so that
SNIA members could improve storage networking interoperability through solutions developed and qualified
by Forum members. Each Supported Solution is jointly supported by sponsoring Forum members all the way
to the end-user. In other words, the Supported Solutions Forum helps in delivering storage networking
solutions that are jointly qualified and mutually supported by competing vendors. Additional information on
the SSF can be found at www.snia.org/ssf.
Q24. What is the SNIA?
A. The SNIA stands for the Storage Networking Industry Association and is a not-for-profit organization made
up of over 200 companies that span the storage industry. SNIA is dedicated to helping ensure that storage
networks become efficient, complete and trusted solutions across the IT community. The SNIA is uniquely
committed to delivering standards, education and services that will propel open storage networking solutions
into the broader market. Additional information on the SNIA can be found at www.snia.org.
Q25. Where does one go for additional information on the new open SAN supported solutions offered
by this consortium of vendors?
A. For more information on this solution set, please contact your Brocade, Compaq, IBM, Emulex, JNI, or
QLogic sales representative.