We have to connect our first Fibre Channel switch, a QLogic SanBox, to a pair of Apple XRaid arrays and an XServe. We connected a laptop to the Fibre Channel switch and ran the Express Setup installation program, but are not sure what to do next. Do we need to create a fabric and assign ports, or can we just plug the cables in and go?
Because this is the first Fibre Channel switch in your network, you can most likely just plug the cables in and go after the QLogic Express Setup program has been run.
If your first XRaid and your XServe are connected directly to each other by two Fibre Channel cables, then the only thing you need is one more Fibre Channel cable to be able to connect one cable from the XServe to the QLogic switch, and one cable from each XRaid port to the QLogic switch.
You do not have to power the equipment down to make the change. You do need to be careful disconnecting the Fibre Channel cables from the XServe, as the locking tab can be difficult to reach and compress so you can slide the cable out.
Once you connect the Fibre Channel cables from the server and the first RAID array to the switch, you should be able to read and write to the volumes on the RAID array.
