Storage Center Communication; Front-End Connectivity - Dell Storage Center SCv2000 Deployment Manual

plan or to provide local access to a remote data volume. Typically, data is replicated remotely as part of
an overall disaster avoidance or recovery plan.
The SCv2000 Series Storage Center supports replication to other SCv2000 Series Storage Centers.
However, an Enterprise Manager Data Collector must be used to replicate data between the storage
systems.
• For more information on installing an Enterprise Manager Data Collector, see the Dell Enterprise
Manager Installation Guide.
• For more information on managing the Data Collector and setting up replications, see the Dell
Enterprise Manager Administrator's Guide.

Storage Center Communication

A Storage Center uses multiple types of communication for both data transfer and administrative
functions.
Storage Center communication is classified into three types: front end, back end, and system
administration.

Front-End Connectivity

Front-end connectivity provides IO paths from servers to a storage system and replication paths from
one Storage Center to another Storage Center. The SCv2000/SCv2020 storage system provides the
following types of front-end connectivity:
• Fibre Channel: Hosts, servers, or Network Attached Storage (NAS) appliances access storage by
connecting to the storage system Fibre Channel ports through one or more Fibre Channel switches.
Connecting host servers directly to the storage system, without using Fibre Channel switches, is not
supported.
When replication is licensed, the SCv2000/SCv2020 can use the front-end Fibre Channel ports to
replicate data to another Storage Center.
• iSCSI: Hosts, servers, or Network Attached Storage (NAS) appliances access storage by connecting to
the storage system iSCSI ports through one or more Ethernet switches. Connecting host servers
directly to the storage system, without using Ethernet switches, is not supported.
When replication is licensed, the SCv2000/SCv2020 can use the front-end iSCSI ports to replicate
data to another Storage Center.
• SAS: Hosts or servers access storage by connecting directly to the storage system SAS ports.
NOTE: When replication is licensed, the SCv2000/SCv2020 can use the embedded REPL port to
perform iSCSI replication to another SCv2000 series Storage Center.
If replication is licensed and the Flex Port license is installed, the SCv2000/SCv2020 can use the
embedded MGMT port to perform iSCSI replication to another SCv2000 series Storage Center. In
addition, the SCv2000/SCv2020 can use the embedded MGMT and REPL ports as front-end iSCSI
ports for connectivity to host servers when the Flex Port license is installed.
About the SCv2000/SCv2020 Storage System
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