In this topology, ten clients share 16 TB of storage. The SAN's bandwidth availability with four semi-populated Xserve RAIDs is a whopping 640 to 800 MB/s. Because of the number of Fibre cables in this topology (32 total), an additional switch has been implemented. Data cascades effortlessly between the two switches because a high-bandwidth interswitch link (ISL) has been made with six user ports on each switch. Think of it as a data river that flows bidirectionally between each switch. A primary and a standby MDC are mandatory with such a large implementation. To keep their roles simple and efficient, the directory is implemented on the outer network. Storage
Fibre Channel Switch
Metadata Controllers
Ethernet Switch (Metadata Network)
Client Workstations
Outer NetworkMac OS X Server running Open Directory to provide directory services, or a system running a similar service such as Active Directory. |