Technical information
33 EqualLogic Configuration Guide | Version 15.2 | August 2014
8 EqualLogic SAN design
An EqualLogic iSCSI SAN can be operated in any network that supports the industry standards and IP
subnet design guidelines described in this section. Because of this flexibility, there are many network
design and configuration choices that can affect SAN performance. The following sections provide details
related to network design and configuration to support the use of an EqualLogic SAN.
Note: With the addition of FS Series NAS functionality, the EqualLogic product family now provides an
iSCSI based unified file and block storage platform. An EqualLogic SAN can now be used to provide block
level access (direct iSCSI access to PS Series arrays) or file system level access (via the FS Series
appliance) using NFS or CIFS protocols and the Dell FluidFS scale-out file system.
Unless otherwise stated, SAN recommendations in this document are applicable to both file and block
environments.
8.1 General requirements
8.1.1 Implementation of standards
EqualLogic SANs are based on industry standards. The following standards are required to support all host
to target communications and member to member communications in an EqualLogic SAN:
IETF Standards
- IETF RFC1122 “Requirements for Internet Hosts – Communications Layers”
- IETF RFC1123 “Requirements for Internet Hosts – Application and Support”
- IETF RFC3270 “Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI)”
IEEE Standards
- 802.1
- 802.3
iSNS support
An Internet Storage Name Service
1
(iSNS) server can support discovery, management and configuration of
group members by dynamically updating information about the iSCSI target names for group volumes.
Once the IP address of an iSNS server is entered in an iSCSI initiator’s configuration utility, the setting is
persistent across initiator sessions. A PS Series group can be configured to register with up to three iSNS
servers.
Note: Starting with Firmware V4.1.4, volume and snapshot identifiers are no longer automatically
published to iSNS servers. This applies to new volumes and snapshots as well as volumes and snapshots
that existed before the group was upgraded to V4.1.4.
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The Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS) specification: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4171