Technical information

34 EqualLogic Configuration Guide | Version 15.2 | August 2014
8.1.2 General requirements and recommendations
For EqualLogic PS Series Arrays, the following general SAN design requirements apply:
 To ensure a secure network environment, Dell strongly recommends the following:
- The network environment in which the group resides should be secure from network attacks
such as packet sniffing or connection hijacking. This includes network hardware such as
switches and routers. Firewalls and network isolation should be employed to protect resources.
Network security can be achieved in a number of ways depending on the level of assurance
needed and the types of network attacks to be expected. Security mechanisms include physical
security, application level encryption (SSL/TLS and SSH), and/or IP level encryption (IPSec).
- Network protocols and services used by the group should be secure and not subject to attacks.
This includes RADIUS authentication, Network Time Protocol (NTP), syslog, and outbound SMTP
traffic.
 For all members (arrays) in a given SAN Group all ports should be connected to the same subnet.
This allows the arrays to communicate with each other as a group of peer members. The arrays
must be in the same subnet as the EqualLogic Group IP address.
Note: Hosts can be in a different subnet as long as those hosts have layer 3 routing available to the
subnet containing the arrays and the group’s well known IP address.
 It is strongly recommended that a physically separated network be used for iSCSI traffic and that this
network not be shared with other traffic types.
Note: If there is a requirement to share the same physical networking infrastructure with other non-iSCSI
traffic then Data Center Bridging (DCB) is the recommended method for sharing networking resources.
 Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol must be enabled if the SAN infrastructure has more than two switches
in a non-stacked configuration, and portfast must be enabled on all edge device ports (hosts, FS
Series appliances and arrays).
 Port density requirements to support fully redundant configurations and maximum SAN throughput
are as follows:
- PS4x00 family: 2x 1GbE ports per controller = 4x 1GbE ports total
- PS4110 family: 1x 10GbE port per controller = 2x 10GbE ports total
- PS5x00 family: 3x 1GbE ports per controller = 6x 1GbE ports total
- PS6x00 family: 4x 1GbE ports per controller = 8x 1GbE ports total
- PS6510 family: 2x 10GbE ports per controller = 4x 10GbE ports total
- PS6110 family: 1x 10GbE port per controller = 2x 10GbE ports total
- FS7500 NAS: 12x1GbE ports per controller node (four client LAN and eight iSCSI SAN) + 1
100/1000Mb port per controller node for IPMI interconnection
- FS7600 NAS Appliance: 16x1GbE Ethernet ports per appliance = 8 x 1Gb Ethernet ports per
NAS controller for client connectivity and 8 x 1GbE Ethernet ports per NAS controller for SAN
connectivity
- FS7610 NAS Appliance: 8x10GbE Ethernet ports per appliance = 4 x 10GbE SFP+ Ethernet ports
per NAS controller for client connectivity and 4 x 10GbE SFP+ Ethernet ports per NAS controller
for SAN connectivity