Quad port NIC with HA VIF - port usage rules

[BrendonHiggins]

As part of a migration to NFS datastores from VMFS and FCP LUNs, I am designing my new LAN configuration.  I have selected the cross-switch Etherchannel design recommend in the best practice doc which requires only 2 NIC ports from the quad port NICs I have purchased for this project.  The quad port FCP HBAs we use have ports paired on the same ASIC chip so that so that A & C must be used to ensure no single point of failure.  I have been looking for a similar rule on the quad port NIC cards but can not see anything in the documentation.

http://now.netapp.com/NOW/knowledge/docs/hardware/filer/210-01171+B0.pdf

Are all the ports on the X1049A-R6 independent of each other or should I select ports A & C for my NFS multi mode VIF design?

Thanks

Bren

[radek_kubka · Accepted solution]

Hi Bren,

Good to see you around!

There is a good thread about this topic, but it's in the Sales Engineering space (not accessible for end-users - don't shoot the messenger ). The very informative bottom line from Steve Botkin is below though:

• Systems with only two onboard ports share a single  Ethernet chip.
• Systems with four onboard ports  are split across two separate Ethernet chip sets internal to the controller.
• The QUAD Ethernet port ADD-IN  cards all share a single Ethernet chip.
• If  an Ethernet chip used in a  controller or a NIC card ever fails then a  controller failover will occur so  splitting access across chips is not  necessary.
• Ethernet chip sets used can run  at full bandwidth for all of the ports using those chips.

All the best,

Radek

[BrendonHiggins]

It has been crazy busy with family stuff and projects at work.  Thanks again for the help.

Bren