vfiler and new 2050A configuration question

[VIKAS_AGGARWAL]

Will appreciate if can get some expert advise. I am configuring a 2050A which 3 vfilers for CIFS data. My task is to create LUNs for SAN access (Right now not sure if iSCSI or FCP).  If it is FCP then based on multistore document I read I can only create FCP luns in vfiler0.

Question - In case its iSCSI LUN then do I have to create another vfiler unit for iSCSI LUNs, please advise.

Another question - The LUNs are exchange database and log luns and also an MS-SQL. I am planning to go for one LUN per volume,  please advise what can be drawbacks in this.

I will appreciate if experts can comment and/or also point me to some comunity discussion threads I can look into to plan my 2050A configuration.

[adamfox]

It is correct that the FCP protocol is not supported in vfilers (only vfiler0 which is the physical filer).

But I guess I'm trying to understand the purpose of using vfilers here.  I'm a big fan on MultiStore, but I'm trying to understand how you are trying to break up your environment and what advantages you are trying to get from MultiStore.  You may or may not want new vfilers for your iSCSI LUNs or even your CIFS shares, but it's difficult to answer your question unless I understand what you are trying to accomplish.

[VIKAS_AGGARWAL]

Thanks.

The 3 vfiler units will replace the existing 3 CIFS servers. Customer is moving to NetApp from a competitive environment.

[keitha]

Unless the CIFS servers were on different domains this would not need vFilers. You can certainly do multiple CIFS shares on different LAN without using Multistore. If you do have different domains then that makes sense.

[adamfox]

I'm ok with using MultiStore as part of a mirgration strategy.  There can be other reasons besides multiple domains why one would want to do this such as path clashes (i.e. I'm consolidating multiple windows servers that have the same share name) or because one wishes to use vfiler dr or vfiler migrate in the future.

With respect to your iSCSI LUNs, it's really up to you.  If you see value in assigning yet another IP to a vfiler that has iSCSI LUNs, feel free to do so.  However, if these LUNs are net-new to the evironment, keeping them on vfiler0 won't hurt.  Bottom line, it depends on your data center strategy.  There are ethernet storage customers who put everything in vfilers as a part of their data center strategy.