see inline...
Hello guys,
can you please give me a hand?
the company i work for, just bought a FAS2040 and DS14 MK4 FC for our storage solution.
we have 4 servers that we would like to connect via GbE with redundant paths to the controllers (each controller has 4x GbE correct?)
plus, we have 2 FC servers as well and we would like to connect each server to each controller (also with reduntant paths)
problem is that the connections between the shelf and the FAS controllers (we got 2 for resiliency) are done via FC.
on a FAS2020 you have 2 available FC-Ports. you can configure them as initiator port(for DS14MK4 Shelves) or as taget ports(to connect to your FC-SAN)
so we won´t be able to have two paths from the servers to the controllers. it´s mandatory that we have resiliency.
SAN works a bit different than IP stuff. In your case you would connect one fc-port(target) of each controller to your SAN switch and the other fc-port(initiator) to the DS14MK4 Diskshelve.
All your servers connect to the same san switch and you have to do a zoning on the switch. If you dual attach your servers you have at least two paths from the switch to the server.
You won't be able to connect both fc-ports(target) to your san switch because then you won't be able to attach your Diskshelve.
ordering a cisco MDS switch is out of question due to our low budget (i am thinking of getting a pair of brocade switches instead) but i heard that we could get a DS4243 shelf and connect to the FAS controllers via iSCSI (Ethernet).
Brocades are fine.
The DS4243 Diskshelve is a SAS connected Diskshelve, you need a different type of cable with sas connectors.
The FAS2020 doesn't have any SAS ports available and you can not add a sas card. Therefor you can not connect a DS4243 Diskshelf with a FAS2020.
You can't connect a DS4243 Diskshelve via iSCSI to the controllers.
The Ethernet connection on the DS4243 is for internal management, called ACP(seperates the data path from the management path).
so my question is: is it possible to have a scenario where i could connect each FC server to each controller for resiliency? (this way i would be using all FC interfaces on both controllers)
yes if you connect both fc-target-ports of both connecters to your san switch. but then you won't be able to connect a disk shelve, so you could only work with internal disks.
if yes, i would be connecting the shelf to the controllers via GbE. but once we have 4x GbE on each controller, it wouldn´t be possible to connect all my 4GbE servers with reduntant paths to each controller right?
no, thats not possible. the ethernet ports are not used to connect a disk shelve.
what about performance? is this the best away to achieve this? performance is a concern.
shouldnt be a concern if you buy the smallest netapp box. if you need performance and want to extend your netapp storage you should buy at least a fas2040
sorry for so much questions. i´m an IP guy and SAN world is news to me.
appreciate in advance for any help you guys can give me.
sure, hth
alex
thx,
