Storage Area Network Configurations for RA8000/ESA12000 on Windows NT-Intel Application Note

SAN Configurations for RA8000/ESA12000 on Windows NT - Intel
Page 16 AA–RHH6B–TE
[32 – 2 ISL ports – 8 storage ports = 22 server ports]
Maximum of 16 servers configured on one controller pair
Maximum of 8 servers configured on any one active controller host port
Or Maximum Storage Capacity,
Up to 7 Storage Systems (26 Storage Ports/13 Active, 13 Standby) and 4 Servers
[32 – 2 ISL ports – 4 server ports = 26 storage ports]
Maximum of 4 active controller host ports per FC HBA
• 8-port FC Switches total number of switch ports available for Servers and Storage is 14
Maximum Server Connectivity,
Up to 10 Servers and 1 Storage System (4 storage ports/2 Active, 2 Standby)
[16 – 2 ISL ports – 4 storage ports = 10 server ports]
Maximum of 8 servers configured on any one active controller host port
Or Maximum Storage Capacity,
Up to 3 Storage Systems (12 storage ports/6 Active, 6 Standby) and 2 Servers
[16 – 2 ISL ports – 2 server ports = 12 storage ports]
Maximum of 4 active controller host ports per FC HBA
• All HSG80 array controllers configured in Transparent Failover Mode
• EBS Integration Supported
SAN Configuration 3 Fabric Rules
• Total Switches = 2, 16-port or 8-port
• Maximum Switch Hops (nominal ) = 1
• Maximum Switch Hops (worst case ) = 1
• Maximum number of ISLs between the two switches = 15
• Maximum Distances:
Up to 500 meters per FC cable segment, 1.5 km total server to storage when using 50 micron
multi-mode fibre optic cable. Refer to general Fabric rules for other cable types
Up to 10 km per inter-switch link, 11 km total server to storage when using 9 micron single
mode fibre optic cable and long wave GBICs
SAN Configuration 3 Notes
• Each FC Switch must have a unique domain number (Domain_ID)
• When configured with greater than 4 Windows NT Servers per active controller host port,
classified as an “NT Extended Configuration” (refer to the StorageWorks Windows NT Platform
Kit FC Software Setup Utility)
• For servers accessing controller host port 1 use LUN number and offset values in the range of 0 –
99, for controller host port 2 use number and offset values in the range 100 -199
• Performance considerations, assuming relatively equal server load:
If using two storage systems, for balanced performance across all servers, configure half of
the servers on each of the storage systems and equally on the controller port pairs.
The recommended maximum number of controller host ports configured per FC HBA is 2 for
high bandwidth applications and 4 for high throughput applications.
Use these general performance rules to determine the optimum number of ISLs required
between both switches.
For balanced SAN performance configure 1 storage system on each FC switch.
For the highest available performance, whenever possible, devices that exchange the highest
amount of data should be connected to the same FC switch, for example, servers and the
storage assigned to them should be configured on the same FC switch, otherwise:
For high bandwidth applications – One ISL between switches for every 2 storage controller
ports on one switch being accessed by a server on the other switch.
For high throughput applications – One ISL between switches for every 6 storage controller
ports on one switch being accessed by a server on the other switch.