10-Gbe Initiators; Mpx200 Storage And Ip Network Best Practices; Prerequisites; Planning Your Storage Configuration - HP MPX200 User Manual

10-GbE initiators

HP recommends that you map servers with 10-GbE NICs for login to the 10-GbE ports on the
MPX200.

MPX200 storage and IP network best practices

The following sections list requirements and recommendations for optimal results.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites for using this product include:
A Fibre Channel switch installed in your environment for MPX200 fabric-attached configurations
Equipment cabinet suitable for 2U-sized enclosures
A 1 GbE or 10-GbE switch to connect to the MPX200 1GbE iSCSI ports or to the MPX200
10GbE iSCSI/FCoE ports as iSCSI targets
Converged network switch, if planning to configure the MPX200 as an iSCSI/FCoE target,
and separately configured iSCSI and FCoE VLANs
Cat5e or Cat6 cabling to the MPX200 1 GbE iSCSI data ports
HP-recommended 10-GbE SFP+ optical transceivers or 10-GbE SFP+ copper cabling to the
10-GbE iSCSI/FCoE data ports (see the MPX200 QuickSpec for part numbers)
For 10-GbE connectivity, HP recommends OM3 or HP PremierFlex LC-LC (OM3+, OM4) type
cabling

Planning your storage configuration

Proper planning of the storage subsystem and its subsequent performance is critical to a successful
deployment of the MPX200 and connected storage systems. Improper planning or implementation
can result in wasted storage space, degraded performance, or inability to expand the system to
meet growing storage needs. Planning considerations include:
System and performance expectations
Striping methods
RAID levels
Hard drive sizes and types
Spare drives
Number of storage systems (up to 4) and sizing (capacity)
Number of Fibre Channel presented virtual LUNs
Number of iSCSI and FCoE initiators
– 1 GbE iSCSI per chassis (1 or 2 blades): 300 initiators or logins maximum– 10 GbE
iSCSI/FCoE per chassis (1 or 2 blades): 600 initiators or logins maximum
Number of virtual LUNs to be presented to the iSCSI and FCoE initiators
– 1 GbE iSCSI per chassis (1 or 2 blades): 4096 LUNs maximum
– 10 GbE iSCSI/FCoE per chassis (1 or 2 blades): 4096 combined iSCSI and FCoE LUNs
maximum
FCoE requires a converged network switch that implements DCB standards for lossless Ethernet.
You can build a high-performance, highly available IP-SAN in a variety of ways. Consider an
enterprise-class switch infrastructure as detailed in
packet loss, and unpredictable performance. Consider implementing the 10-GbE IP-SAN on a
22 Planning the MPX200 installation
Table 1 (page 11) to minimize packet discard,