Best Practices for Resolving SAN Fabric Congestion

Fibre Channel switches have been around since the 1990’s and their use has grown such that most companies have a Fibre Channel SAN fabric in their datacenter. The Fibre Channel protocol has matured to the point where the SAN fabric is among the most reliable entities in the datacenter, but congestion still occurs.

SAN fabric congestion occurs when fibre channel frames enter the fabric faster than they exit, resulting in a buildup of frames waiting for transmission.

The three causes of SAN fabric congestion are:

  1. Slow drain devices
  2. Lost buffer credits
  3. Oversubscription

This whitepaper discusses the causes, troubleshooting, and remediation of congestion on Fibre Channel networks. It will also give some helpful best practices that serve as preventative measures.

To download this white paper, please complete the form to the right, and we will send the file to your email.