Hello,
Please help me with the following questions because I have heard various opinions, but I cannot get a straight answer.
Basically I want to purchase a fas2020 primary for NAS purposes, but FC connectivity will be used too, so I need to clear this up.
If I have a FAS2020 active/active cluster with an additional DS14 SATA shelf, I should connect two FC ports, one from each controller (A & B) to the shelf.
The remaining two ports can be connected to a pair of Brocade FC SAN switches (SW1 & SW2). (controller A to SW1 & controller B to SW2 )
a. As far as I can understand, if the cfmode setting is single_image (which is the default), a host (eg. a Windows machine) that is connected to both switches can have redundant path to the storage by utilizing multipathing software. Is this correct?
b. If there is a tape library attached to SW1, can I use NDMP backup software (eg.Symantec Netbackup or HP Dataprotector) to backup the fas2020 data to the tape library through the FC connection, or is there any limitation such as that I cannot use tape libraries through FC, if the FC ports are already used for host connection to the storage (because of initiator/target mode of port) ?
c. If it is possible to utilize the tape concurrently with the host FC connection, should the SW1 and SW2 be connected to each other, or controller B will be able to access the tape library through the FC port of controller A which has the physical connection to SW1 where the library is connected?
d. If it is not possible, how can I send the NAS data to the tape? Is it possible to perform the backup through the LAN, but without mounting the filesystems from eg. the backup server? Will NDMP transfer the data through the LAN and send it to the Tape via eg. the backup server?
Thanks!
John