topic Re: What's Quad-path used for? in ONTAP Hardware

What's Quad-path used for?

River — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 07:25:09 GMT

Hi All :

I am install FAS9000, is there any know what's Quad-path used for? Only more safety? Should I cable as Quad-path right now?

I study the document "Installation and Cabling Guide for DS460C, DS224C, and DS212C" but only got cable rules and got no answer to use Quad-path HA cabling.

Re: What's Quad-path used for?

hariprak — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 09:03:05 GMT

Hi,

Hope this helps https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_download_file/ECMLP2485106

Thanks

Re: What's Quad-path used for?

ShivaR — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 13:02:43 GMT

Earlier SAS connectivity from shelf to controller used to have multipath which has 4 paths. Now it is an optional you can connect quad-path which means 8 paths from controllers to shelfs.

Re: What's Quad-path used for?

andris — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 02:20:06 GMT

Hi River,

While quad-path HA provides additional path resiliency, the main purpose for the additional cabling is to double the I/O bandwidth to the SAS3 storage stack.

Configuring the storage stack with quad-path HA and double-wide intrastack connections is optional. All-SSD storage stacks can benefit from the increased bandwidth, especially for

for large block (e.g. 64KB) sequential read streaming workloads.

Re: What's Quad-path used for?

River — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 09:24:02 GMT

Hi Andris:

Thanks for your answer.

I just think in the same way, as take AFF700 document as reference, Quad-path should be use in AFF solutions just in case of bandwith bottleneck.

Re: What's Quad-path used for?

andris — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 20:17:17 GMT

Sure... If you don't want to peruse performance graphs/counters (e.g. via OnCommand Performance Manager) to check the storage utilization percentage or worry about specific workloads, going with Quad-Path cabling for AFF storage is a great rule of thumb. There's just the minor extra costs of using extra HBA ports and cables.

Re: What's Quad-path used for?

mpedigo_usda — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 20:00:23 GMT

Document no longer exists. Please fix the link.

Re: What's Quad-path used for?

River — Wed, 24 Aug 2022 19:56:59 GMT

please take p.53 as reference.

§Quad Path cabling recommended for large block, 64k or larger, sequential read workloads

§Multipath HA sufficient for other workloads

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