HPE Storage SAN Extension Switch B-series SN2600B
When distance separates your data centers, effective replication and disaster recovery can become a significant challenge. Latency, packet loss, and limited bandwidth over wide area networks (WANs) can slow critical data transfers to a crawl, putting your business continuity objectives at risk. Traditional network infrastructure is often not equipped to handle the unique demands of block, file, and tape replication over thousands of miles.
The HPE Storage SAN Extension Switch B-series SN2600B is a purpose-built platform designed to eliminate these barriers. It provides a fast, secure, and cost-effective fabric for moving data between sites, ensuring your replication and backup processes meet stringent recovery point objectives (RPOs). By leveraging advanced data mobility technologies, the SN2600B overcomes the inherent challenges of distance to protect your most valuable information against disruption.
The HPE SN2600B is more than just a switch; it's a powerful data mobility engine. Built on Gen6 Fibre Channel technology, it utilizes the Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) protocol to create a highly reliable tunnel for storage traffic across any IP network. This enables seamless extension of your SAN fabric over vast geographical distances—up to 25,500 km—without compromising performance or data integrity.
To maximize your existing WAN infrastructure, the SN2600B incorporates a suite of powerful optimization technologies. Advanced compression, WAN-optimized TCP, and protocol acceleration for disk and tape work in concert to dramatically increase throughput and mitigate the effects of latency. With a compression ratio up to 4:1, the switch can achieve an effective replication throughput of up to 10Gb/s, ensuring data moves quickly and efficiently to where it's needed most.
Selecting the right SAN extension solution is critical for achieving your business continuity and disaster recovery objectives. The HPE SN2600B offers multiple configurations and licensing options that must be carefully aligned with your specific distance, bandwidth, and application performance requirements. A misaligned solution can lead to missed RPOs and unnecessary infrastructure costs.
Nexus ITX helps organizations navigate this complexity. We assist in the evaluation process by focusing on your unique technical and business goals, ensuring the chosen solution architecture is a precise fit for your environment.
Q: What is the primary purpose of the HPE SN2600B SAN Extension Switch?
A: Its primary purpose is to enable fast, reliable, and secure data replication (for block, file, and tape) over long distances between data centers. It uses specialized technology to overcome the challenges of WAN latency and packet loss that typically hinder replication performance.
Q: What is Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) and why is it important?
A: FCIP is a technology that transports Fibre Channel data by tunneling it inside an IP network. This is crucial for the SN2600B as it allows a company's SAN fabric, which is typically local, to be extended across a standard IP-based WAN to a remote data center, enabling long-distance replication and disaster recovery.
Q: How does the SN2600B improve replication speed over a standard WAN?
A: It uses a multi-faceted approach: advanced data compression (up to 4:1 ratio) reduces the amount of data sent, WAN-optimized TCP ensures lossless and in-order packet delivery, and disk/tape protocol acceleration minimizes the back-and-forth communication that is sensitive to latency.
Q: What is the main difference between the R6W20A and R6W21A models?
A: The primary difference is the number of active ports and included software. The base model (R6W20A) starts with 4 active FC ports and 2 active 1/10GbE WAN ports. The Power Pack+ model (R6W21A) comes fully populated with 12 active FC ports and 6 active 1/10GbE WAN ports, along with advanced software features like Extension Trunking and Fabric Vision.
Q: Can I upgrade the switch's performance over time?
A: Yes, the SN2600B is designed with a pay-as-you-grow model. Organizations can purchase on-demand licenses to activate additional FC ports or increase the WAN link rate from 1Gb/s up to 2.5Gb/s as their data replication needs expand.
Q: Does this switch support replication from both Fibre Channel and IP-based storage arrays?
A: Yes. It supports both FCIP (for Fibre Channel storage) and IP extension (for IP-based storage), allowing you to consolidate replication traffic from both types of arrays over a single, shared WAN connection, which simplifies network management and can reduce costs.
Contact us to discuss your specific distance, bandwidth, and disaster recovery requirements.
