Technical information

60 EqualLogic Configuration Guide | Version 15.2 | August 2014
11.1 Designing a SAN using blade chassis I/O modules with arrays
There are three categories of SAN designs for M1000e blade chassis integration:
1. Blade IOM switch only ( Direct-Attached ) – Network ports of both the hosts and storage are
connected to the M1000e blade IOM switches. No Top of Rack (ToR) switches are required. The
switch interconnect can be a stack or a LAG, and no uplink is required.
2. ToR switch only ( Pass-Through ) – Network ports of both the hosts and the storage are
connected to external ToR switches. Pass-through IOM are used in place of blade IOM switches
in the M1000e blade chassis. The switch interconnect can be a stack, a LAG, or VLT.
3. Blade IOM switch with ToR switch ( Two-Tier ) – Host network ports are connected to the
M1000e blade IOM switches and the storage network ports are connected to ToR switches. The
switch interconnect can be a stack, a LAG, or VLT and should connect the ToR switch to better
facilitate inter-array member traffic. An uplink stack, LAG or VLT interconnect from the blade IOM
switch tier to the ToR switch tier is also required.
For a detailed description of integrating blade chassis with EqualLogic arrays, see the following link:
http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/storage/w/wiki/4137.dell-poweredge-m1000e-blade-and-
equallogic-ps-series-san-design-best-practices-by-sis.aspx
For a detailed description of integrating blade chassis with EqualLogic arrays in a Data Center Bridging
(DCB ) environment, see the following link:
http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/storage/w/wiki/4451.poweredge-m1000e-blade-and-
equallogic-ps-series-san-design-best-practices-using-force10-switches-by-sis.aspx