WHITE PAPER IOMEGA® STORCENTERTM ix12-300r ADVANCED NETWORK CONFIGURATION GUIDE SPRING 2010 Introduction 1 Terminology 2 VLAN Configuration 3 NIC Bonding Configuration 3 Jumbo Frame Configuration 4 Other I/O High Availability Options 5 Configuration Procedure 6 Conclusion 10
IOMEGA STORCENTER IX12-300R ADVANCED NETWORK CONFIGURATION GUIDE INTRODUCTION The Iomega® StorCenter™ ix12-300r network storage array offers versatile storage provisioning, advanced protocol capabilities, expandability, and affordability in an easy-to-use product ideal for small businesses, workgroups, and departments.
IOMEGA STORCENTER IX12-300R ADVANCED NETWORK CONFIGURATION GUIDE TERMINOLOGY LAN: Local Area Network. NIC: Network Interface Card (a.k.a. Network Adapter) Virtual NIC: Virtual network interface card. In this paper, it refers to a VLAN or bonded NIC device. NAS: Network Attached Storage. The name given to dedicated data storage technology that can be connected directly to a computer network to provide centralized data access and storage to heterogeneous network clients.
IOMEGA STORCENTER IX12-300R ADVANCED NETWORK CONFIGURATION GUIDE VLAN CONFIGURATION VLAN is essentially a Layer 2 (Data Link Layer) construct, while an IP subnet is a Layer 3 (Network Layer) construct. In an environment employing VLAN, a many-to-many relationship can exist between VLANs and IP subnets. It is possible to have multiple subnets on one VLAN or have one subnet spread across multiple VLANs. The protocol most commonly used today in VLAN configuration is IEEE 802.1Q.
IOMEGA STORCENTER IX12-300R ADVANCED NETWORK CONFIGURATION GUIDE NIC bonding can be configured in different modes. Some typical modes include: t NIC failover: this mode provides adapter fault tolerance through automatic failovers from an active NIC to a standby NIC in the case of switch port, cable, or NIC failure. No switch configuration is required for this mode. It works with any switch or hub.
IOMEGA STORCENTER IX12-300R ADVANCED NETWORK CONFIGURATION GUIDE Most Gigabit Ethernet switches and Gigabit NICs support Jumbo Frames, but all Fast Ethernet switches and Fast Ethernet NICs do not support Jumbo Frames. Normally IP networks require that all hosts in a subnet have an identical MTU. Therefore, when using Jumbo Frames, the best practice is to enable Jumbo Frames on all network interfaces connected to the same subnet.
IOMEGA STORCENTER IX12-300R ADVANCED NETWORK CONFIGURATION GUIDE CONFIGURATION PROCEDURE As illustrated collectively in the procedures below, when using all these advanced network capabilites together the following limitations apply on the StorCenter ix12-300r: t VLAN can be configured on individual physical NICs, but cannot be configured on bonded NICs. Each NIC can have up to four VLANs.
IOMEGA STORCENTER IX12-300R ADVANCED NETWORK CONFIGURATION GUIDE 2. Click the button next to an interface to add a VLAN for the interface and enter the network settings for the VLAN. The existing network configuration of the interface does not need to be removed. Figure 2 Add a VLAN 3. Repeat step 2 to add more VLANs to the interface. The corresponding switch port must be tagged accordingly with the VLAN IDs. After this step, the NIC has five different working IP addresses assigned to it.
IOMEGA STORCENTER IX12-300R ADVANCED NETWORK CONFIGURATION GUIDE 4. Click the button next to an interface to create a bonded device. In this example, interface 4 is used as the primary device, and interface 2 is added to the bond. Figure 4 Create a bonded network interface 5. Click Apply to create the bonded device.
IOMEGA STORCENTER IX12-300R ADVANCED NETWORK CONFIGURATION GUIDE 6. Click the Bonding Mode dropdown menu to select the mode to be used. This is a global setting, and all the bonded devices on the StorCenter ix12-300r will use the same mode. Bonding Mode: Figure 6 Choose bonding mode 7. Click the Jumbo Frame dropdown menu next to the interface that needs to use Jumbo Frames to set a frame size.
IOMEGA STORCENTER IX12-300R ADVANCED NETWORK CONFIGURATION GUIDE 8. Click Apply to finish the configurations. The StorCenter ix12-300r device will need to be restarted for the configurations to take effect. Figure 8 Restart the device to make configurations effective CONCLUSION The Iomega StorCenter ix12-300r network storage array is a high-performance, easy-to-use, and highly reliable storage device, specifically designed to meet the storage challenges that small- and medium-sized businesses face daily.
