White Papers

Design best practices
10 Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series and Microsoft Hyper-V | 3921-BP-WS
Hyper-V hosts, nodes, and clusters support all the above configuration options. Consider the following
recommendations:
• If a Hyper-V environment is likely to scale beyond four physical hosts or nodes attached to the same
ME4 Series array, choose the following:
- Start with a SAN configuration (FC or iSCSI) (recommended)
- Start with a DAS configuration (FC or iSCSI), and migrate to a SAN configuration when the fifth
node needs to be added (caution: this might be very disruptive to the environment because it will
require host down time to reconfigure and re-cable the FE ports)
• If the ME4 Series array is configured to replicate to another ME4 Series array, two of the four FE
ports (0 and 1) on each controller head must be dedicated to replication traffic. This will limit the
available FE ports for host connectivity to the other two ports (2 and 3) on each controller. If the
Hyper-V environment is likely to scale beyond two physical hosts or nodes, choose the following:
- Start with a SAN configuration (FC or iSCSI) (recommended)
- Start with a DAS configuration (FC or iSCSI), and migrate to a SAN configuration when the third
node needs to be added (caution: as stated previously, this might be very disruptive to the
environment)
• SAS FE ports are supported in a DAS configuration only. ME4 Series arrays equipped with SAS FE
ports do not support replication to another ME4 Series array. SAS FE ports are a good choice if the
ME4 Series array will not need to expand beyond four Hyper-V hosts or nodes, and will not need to
be configured for replication.
Other factors to consider include the following:
• With DAS, the hosts must be within reach of the physical cable that is used to directly connect the
host to the ME4 Series array. This works well if the hosts are in the same or an adjacent rack that is
within easy cabling distance.
• Choosing the type of transport is often a function of what is already in place in the environment or
according to personal preference. In cases where the infrastructure to support an FC or iSCSI SAN is
already in place, customers can continue using this transport to maximize their return on their
investment.