As shown in Figures 2a, 2b, and 3, Nishan's switches provide Gigabit connectivity between end devices, including server, storage, and tape subsystems. Figure 2a and 2b each show a simple cluster using either Fibre Channel end devices or SCSI end devices. Figure 3 depicts a more complex cluster with a mixed environment of Fibre Channel and SCSI end devices. All Fibre Channel devices can be included in the SoIP SAN using the IPS 3000 Series. All SCSI end devices can be included in the SoIP SAN using the IPS 2000 Series.
Nodes communicate via a heartbeat over an IP link.
This cluster heartbeat enables hosts to recognize which are active members of the cluster, which are joining or leaving the cluster and which have failed. This configuration provides multiple paths to storage resources as well as the ability to handle storage growth by dynamically allocating and reallocating storage resources on demand. By deploying your SAN using standard Gigabit Ethernet and IP connections, you can quickly deploy clusters while managing the environment in a same homogeneous fashion. Storage over IP combines the best of both SAN and LAN to create a highly interoperable, highly manageable infrastructure.