Owners Manual

EqualLogic FS7500 Controller Hardware Maintenance Installing System Components
2–7
Figure 2-5: FS7500 Controller Network Interface Ports
The network interface ports connect to the following:
• eth20 - eth23: Internal network
• eth30 - eth33: SAN
• eth0 - eth3: Client
Network Connection Requirements and Recommendations
At a minimum, you can connect all the network ports in an EqualLogic FS7500 to the same
physical switch. However, this configuration is appropriate only for demonstration or testing
purposes because the network switch is a single point of failure. Dell recommends that you use a
highly-available network switch configuration for the client, SAN, and internal network
connections.
Ideally, you want a network switch configuration in which a switch failure does not disrupt the
availability of the NAS service. This means that no single switch should have all the client, SAN,
or internal network connections.
Network connection requirements and recommendations for each FS7500 Controller are as
follows:
• A switched 1GE network is recommended.
• You need either 5 times as many network cables as you have controllers (minimum network
configuration) or 13 times as many network cables as you have controllers. (recommended
network configuration) That is, you need 5 or 13 cables for each FS7500 Controller.
• Connect the IPMI port to the internal network.
• Connect the two internal network ports on each network interface card (NIC) to different
switches.