A5000 - more details

[Seth Rothenberg]

I'm sorry to rehash this, but I have followed
the discussion and have not seen this discussed.
and, I just met with someone from Veritas who
renewed my interest in the A5000.  I have
"Just the Facts on the A5000", and this 
question is still not clear.

How exactly is the Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop
hooked up?  (Is there a URL with a detailed 
diagram?)  Can I take an A5000 with two Interface
Boards, and hook up 3 hosts with two SBUS cards
in each?  Do I then need an additional GBIC in 
each adapter - ie, 8 additional GBICs?
and, to add another array to the dual rings,
I just get another array with 2 Ibs and 4 GBICs?

We are looking to use an A5000 in a High
Availability configuration (Asymetric).
We have a Sparc 1000, a 1000E, and a Sparc20.
The Veritas sales rep said I can have all three
hosts in the loop.  He did not know if I can 
program Volume Manager to handle all 3.
I also wonder if SDS can handle 3 hosts/diskset.

Also, has anyone done an upgrade to an A5000
from SSA-112/SDS?  I am trying to sort out
the shortage of SBUS slots in this also.  I am thinking I will run ONE
loop during conversion, 
and then change out the SSA Fibre card later,
and put in the second loop then.

Thanks for your time.
Seth Rothenberg
Senior Systems Analyst
Montefiore Medical Center