What's Fibre Channel?

Question

i don't understand if the technology 'fibre channel' is something 'software' or something 'hardware' (fibre optics connection) ? Can i create a fibre-channel san using 'some' pieces of existent hardware (like old computer with linux or similar) ? Thanks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibre_Channel – ceejayoz May 29 '12 at 17:02 — ceejayoz, May 29 '12 at 17:02
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapheap_Challenge – Sirch May 29 '12 at 17:04 — Sirch, May 29 '12 at 17:04
@Sirch Oh, that's mean and a good laugh... – Jeff Ferland May 29 '12 at 17:05 — Jeff Ferland, May 29 '12 at 17:05

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 29 '12 at 17:05

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibre_Channel

At the most basic level it's a signaling protocol. It can run over copper or fiber. So its a combo of hardware and software. Hardware to terminate and transmit traffic and software to interpret that traffic. In my experience (SMB) it works much like a NIC just a different addressing method and certainly different/more expensive hardware.

What's Fibre Channel?

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