Chapter 9. Cisco routing best practices 277
9.6.3 Inter-switch links
Relying on a single physical link between switches reduces the overall
redundancy in the design. Redundant inter-switch links (ISLs) provide failover
capacity if a link fails. Some architects are content with two separate fabrics,
each with their own ISL. The issue with this is that, if an ISL fails, you are in fabric
failover, because one of the fabrics is effectively broken. By having at least two
ISLs per fabric, you avoid fabric failover if a link fails.
The Cisco PortChanneling feature enables you to load balance across multiple
ISLs. When deploying iSCSI or FCIP networks, check that the ports are capable
of using PortChanneling.
If running FCIP over an externally provisioned ...