IBM System Storage SAN24B-4 Express0 pages

IBM Systems and Technology
Data Sheet

System Storage

IBM System Storage
SAN24B-4 Express
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Designed for high performance and scalability in
small- to medium-sized SAN environments

Highlights
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Benefit from easy-to-install and easy-touse features designed specifically for
small- to medium-sized environments
Reach new performance levels with
8 Gbps Fibre Channel technology
Scale from 8 to 16 to 24 ports with
Ports on Demand
Protect existing 4, 2 and 1 Gbps infrastructure investments while positioning for
future technologies
Use as the foundation for new infrastructure simplification and business continuity
solutions for servers running Microsoft
Windows, Linux, IBM® AIX® and other
selected operating systems

The IBM System Storage® SAN24B-4 Express fabric switch is designed
specifically to address the needs of small- to medium-sized storage
area network (SAN) environments. It can be used to create a wide
range of high-performance SAN solutions, from simple, single-switch
configurations to larger, multi-switch configurations that support fabric
connectivity and advanced business continuity capabilities. Infrastructure
simplification solutions for servers include storage consolidation and
high-availability server clustering with IBM disk storage arrays. Business
continuity solutions include data protection with IBM tape libraries and
devices and IBM Tivoli® Storage Manager data protection software.
A single SAN24B-4 switch can serve as the cornerstone of a SAN for
those who want to obtain the benefits of storage consolidation and are
just beginning to implement Fibre Channel storage systems. Such an
entry-level configuration can consist of one or two Fibre Channel links to
a disk storage array or to a Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Ultrium tape drive.
An entry-level, eight-port storage consolidation solution can support
up to seven servers with a single path to either disk or tape. The Ports
on Demand feature is designed to enable a base switch to grow to
16 and 24 ports to support more servers and more storage devices without taking the switch offline. A high-availability solution can be created
with redundant switches. This capability is ideal for server clustering
environments. Such a configuration can support from 6 to 22 servers,
each with dual Fibre Channel adapters cross-connected to redundant
SAN24B-4 switches, which are cross-connected to a dual-controller storage system. While the focus of SAN24B-4 is to serve as the foundation of