From neurotica.com

This is intended as a basic getting started guide to FibreChannel storage interconnect technology.

The Host-Bus Adapter

FibreChannel controller cards, or HBAs (Host-Bus Adapters) in FC parlance, are what allow a computer to connect to FibreChannel peripherals. FibreChannel is basically the SCSI command set over a very different, very fast, very well-designed communications medium that can also be used for other protocols such as TCP/IP. There are HBA cards available for all the major buses you'd be worried about (PCI and all of its later variants, Sbus, etc) from several manufacturers like Sun, HP, JNI, Qlogic, and others. There are different speeds of FC...1Gbps is the most common, with 2Gbps becoming more common and less expensive nowadays. 4Gbps is available now. Generally speaking, the people who aren't worried about upgrading for the sake of upgrading (as opposed to upgrading due to real needs) are saving a great deal of money by sticking with 1Gbps FC.

For 1Gbps FC on a PCI machine, the HBA cards to look for are Qlogic QLA-2100/QLA-2200 series, Emulex LPx000 series, or JNI FCI-1063/FCE-6410 series, depending on platform and OS. For Sbus, I recommend a JNI FC64-1063. All of these cards are available cheaply on eBay (for example) at any given time. Expect to pay anywhere from $10 to $30 each.

JNI's drivers don't readily support Solaris 10, but work fine with earlier releases. Qlogic QLA-2200 (and up) cards are supported out-of-the-box by Solaris 10, and drivers are available for earlier releases. The Qlogic cards also work fine with the BSDs and Linux. Emulex has drivers for various releases of Solaris. SGI machines will use the Qlogic cards.

FC HBA cards vary in the type of physical interface they present. Fiber is generally on FC connectors (assuming 1Gbps FC; other speeds use different connectors), and copper is usually on an HSSDC connector (looks like a flatter/wider RJ-series connector) but may be on a DE-9. Some HBA cards have a slot for a GBIC, which is a plug-in physical layer interface module that's the same basic idea as an Ethernet transceiver, and can have any of the above types of external interfaces.

Drives

FibreChannel drives come in the standard SCSI capacities of 9GB, 18GB, 36GB, 73GB, 141GB, 181GB, and 300GB. Most drive manufacturers make them, but I prefer the Seagate drives, mainly because I've used a lot of them and have had good luck with them. These are enterprise-grade drives with very long MTBF specs, and are made to much higher quality standards than consumer drives. They are generally extremely reliable.

FibreChannel drives have a 40-pin SCA (Single Connector Attachment) connector similar to that of the 80-pin connector used on some types of SCSI drives. This connector carries all FibreChannel interface signals, as well as device select signals and power. There are usually no other connectors on the drive. Because the device select signals are carried by this connector, the drive ID is controlled by whatever you plug the drive into.

Drive Interfacing

T-Cards

Now you need a way to talk to the drive. If you want to put just one drive in a chassis (which is NOT how FC was designed to work, but enterprising folk have produced the necessary hardware), you need what's known as a "T-card". Do an eBay search for these...they are cheap, a few dollars apiece. It plugs into the back of the drive and breaks out the power connector to a standard drive connector, the device select pins to a jumper block, and the FC interface itself to other connectors, usually DE-9s. They usually have provisions for daisy-chaining more than one T-card together for multiple drive use. Get one of those, plug it in, and you're all set.

FC Chassis

For more than one or two drives, you should get an FC chassis. These are cheap and readily available...for the "bare bones" ones (most of them out there fall under this category) it basically functions like a whole bunch of T-cards strung together. Most FC chassis will usually have either GBIC sockets, DE-9 or HSSDC connectors for FC over copper. One series I like is made by EuroLogic, commonly available as "NetApp FC shelves" such as the FC-7, FC-8, and FC-9. These are cheap and readily available on eBay...I bought an FC-9 on eBay full of 36GB drives around 2006 for about $80. The FC-[789] are almost identical; they have copper FC interfaces on DE-9 connectors (daisy-chainable to multiple chassis, FC supports 126 devices per chain), have slots for seven drives in hot-swap cans and have dual power supplies. They are LOUD (think hair dryer) but they are built like tanks and provide excellent cooling for the drives.

Another nice chassis is the Sun A5100/A5200. These are gorgeous, have a nice built-in monitoring system with keypad & display, and have GBIC slots to support whatever FC interconnect medium you want to use. The A5100 holds 14 1.6"-height drives and the A5200 holds 21 1"-height drives. Both use standard Sun "Spud" brackets.

Switches

Later, you can pick up an FC switch (same idea as an Ethernet switch, for the same reasons), hang your FC chassis off a switch port, and plug all of your machines into other switch ports. The obvious thing will happen. If you want to mount filesystems on multiple machines simultaneously, though, be sure the filesystem supports that (not many do), or make sure only one of the mounts is read-write. A nice 8-port FC switch can be had anytime on eBay for less than $40. They typically have GBIC slots.