Solution Restrictions And Recommendations - IBM DS4000 Installation Manual

Windows 2008 R2
Windows Windows 7
Windows Vista
Windows XP
Mixed

SOLUTION RESTRICTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

There are several important aspects to the configuring of the SAN that must be understood.
The first is that the SAN design is architected to avoid logical drive failover in the storage
subsystem. This is accomplished by employing a meshed fabric where each HBA on the
server can see both controllers on the storage subsystem. The second aspect has to deal with
access to the shared logical drives. There are three types of data to store on the shared
logical drives; Metadata, Journal, and Data. All systems (MDCs and Clients) must be able to
see the Data LUNs. The MDCs must also be able to both see the Metadata and Journal
LUNs. It is important that the clients do not have access to the Metadata or Journal LUNs.
When configuring the storage partitioning within the storage subsystem, the methodology is as
follows:
• All HBAs in the MDCs will be defined within a single host definition (called MDCs?). This
host definition will have the Metadata and Journal LUNs directly mapped to this host
definition.
• All Clients have their own host definitions. If desired, all clients that have the same OS can
have their HBAs combined within a single host definition.
• All Clients and the MDCs will be assigned to a single host group (called StorNext?). All of
the Data LUNs will be assigned to that host group.
HBAs
MDC Single or
multiple (typical)
MDC - Limit number of defined paths to optimize initialization time. There are few MDCs in
comparison to clients, so this choice should not be as restrictive as below. This is not a hard
requirement, but is recommended.
Most configurations consist of two MDCs for high availability. Both MDCs must have the
same configuration; OS, HBAs, Driver Levels, etc
Client Single (typical)
or multiple
Client – Limit number of defined paths to four to optimize initialization time. This is not a hard
requirement, but is recommended.
Digital Media Storage Solution Installation Guide
© Copyright 2010, IBM Corporation. All rights reserved.
Supported ATTO
x86, x64
HBAs(future)
Supported ATTO
x86
HBAs
Supported ATTO
x86
HBAs
x86 Supported ATTO
HBAs
As appropriate above
Connections
Up to four All ports see Controller A and Controller B on
DSxxxx
Up to two All ports see Controller A and Controller B on
DSxxxx
MPIO/DSM,
ATTO)
ATTO
ATTO
ATTO
As
appropriate
above
Zone
15