August 2016 Operations 29
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Operations
This chapter describes how StorageTek tape drives operate using a Fibre Channel
(FC) interface.
Note – This document is defined by the requirements in FC-Tape
Revision 1.17. As updates occur to the FC-Tape document, this
document will be updated accordingly.
Connections
The T10000 tape drives support various connections:
• 2FC = Direct N_Port, Arbitrated Loop, and a Fabric
• 4FC = Direct N_Port, Arbitrated Loop, and a Fabric
• 8FC = Direct N_Port, Arbitrated Loop, and a Fabric
• 16FC = Direct N_Port, and a Fabric
Arbitrated Loop
An arbitrated loop provides multiple connections for devices that share a single loop,
but only provides point-to-point connections between an initiator and target during
communications.
Note – Both public loops and private loops are supported.
As with SCSI protocol, when devices want to communicate on the bus, they must
arbitrate and win the connection before communications can begin. The same goes
with the arbitrated loop. Once a device is powered-on and initialized on the loop, it
must arbitrate and win to be able to communicate with other devices on the loop.
Fabric Attachment
Fabric, or F_Ports, provide “direct” attachments to the tape drives. The Fabric
receives frames from a source N_Port and routes them to a destination N_Port whose
address identifier is specified within the frame.
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