Reference Guide

Introduction 11
NICs At least two NICs: one NIC for the public network and another
NIC for the private network.
NOTE: It is recommended that the NICs on each public network
are identical, and that the NICs on each private network are
identical.
Internal disk
controller
One controller connected to at least two internal hard drives for
each node. Use any supported RAID controller or disk controller.
Two hard drives are required for mirroring (RAID 1) and at least
three are required for disk striping with parity (RAID 5).
NOTE: It is strongly recommended that you use hardware-based
RAID or software-based disk-fault tolerance for the internal drives.
HBA ports
• For clusters with Fibre Channel storage, two Fibre Channel
HBAs per node, unless the server employs an integrated or
supported dual-port Fibre Channel HBA.
• For clusters with SAS storage, one or two SAS 5/E HBAs
per node.
NOTE: Where possible, place the HBAs on separate PCI buses to
improve availability and performance. For information about
supported systems and HBAs, see the Dell Cluster Configuration
Support Matrices located on the Dell High Availability Clustering
website at www.dell.com/ha.
iSCSI Initiator and
NICs for iSCSI
Access
For clusters with iSCSI storage, the iSCSI Software Initiator
(including iSCSI port driver and Initiator Service) is installed
with the operating system.
Two iSCSI NICs or Gigabit Ethernet NIC ports per node. NICs
with a TCP/IP Off-load Engine (TOE) or iSCSI Off-load
capability may also be used for iSCSI traffic.
NOTE: Where possible, place the NICs on separate PCI buses to
improve availability and performance. For information about
supported systems and HBAs, see Dell Cluster Configuration
Support Matrices on the Dell High Availability Clustering website at
www.dell.com/ha.
Table 1-1. Cluster Node Requirements (continued)
Component Minimum Requirement