VMware Solutions Discussions

Connecting a CISCO 3570 X stack to FAS2240

nishant_melepat
3,385 Views

Hello

I am very new to netapp , currently in the process of setting up its network connectivity. The setup would be done with multiple VLANS in such a way that , controller-1 would be dedicated for virtualization (using ISCSI/NFS) and controller-2 would be for NFS/CIFS file shares.

I have a quick question regarding connecting a CISCO 3570 X stack to FAS2240 with dual controller.  Which is the recommended way ? I have some assumptions but not so sure. Any help would be really appreciated.

#My assumptions:

1. Out of two interfaces of controller-1 , connect to each switch in the stack (say a stack of CISCO 2 x 3570 X series). Similarly for controller-2.

                                                                         OR

2. Two interfaces of controller-1 to first switch in the stack and two interfaces of controller-2 to  second switch in the stack. 

In both cases, should we have to choose a partner interface while configuring VIFs?

Thanks in advance for help.

Regards

Nishant 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

aborzenkov
3,385 Views

Each NetApp controller is independent and has own connectivity. So variant 1 will give high available connection for each controller. And yes, to ensure addresses are taken over by partner during controller failure you need to set partner interface.

View solution in original post

4 REPLIES 4

aborzenkov
3,386 Views

Each NetApp controller is independent and has own connectivity. So variant 1 will give high available connection for each controller. And yes, to ensure addresses are taken over by partner during controller failure you need to set partner interface.

nishant_melepat
3,385 Views

Thanks a lot for your reply. I'll go with 1st variant...

However in variant 2, suppose if the switch-1 which is connected to  controller-1 fails, are we lost with controller-1 connectivity completely ?  Can partner interface in controller-2 takes over the addresses and route traffic via switch-2 ? 

aborzenkov
3,385 Views

Yes, NetApp supports failover on loss of connectivity. Check documentation for “negotiated failover”.

To avoid misunderstanding - it is not failover of interface. It is failover of complete controller - i.e. one controller is shut down and all services are migrated to partner.

nishant_melepat
3,386 Views

So to summarize,   if I go with variant2, with "negotiated failover"  enabled, still we can survive with one switch failure, provided the whole load would be on the second controller!.

In variant 1 since its dual connected on each switch in the stack, we have the controller available without a partner migration being triggered. Which is exactly would be apt for my need as we could dedicate controllers for different purposes.  And at last a partner interface config would help in the event of controller failure. 

Thank you again.

Public