Front End; Back End; System Administration - Dell SC8000 Deployment Manual

Front End

Front‐End connectivity provides connections from servers to controllers using either
Ethernet (iSCSI) or Fibre Channel switches. Front‐End connectivity also supports all
replication traffic.
iSCSI connections provide reads and writes from a server to a controller through an

Ethernet switch.
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) uses the FCoE protocol for data on the front end for

lossless transmission of data.
Fibre Channel (FC) connections on the front end are used to provide reads and writes

from a server to a controller.

Back End

Back‐end connectivity is strictly between the controllers and enclosures. The following
protocols are supported to communicate with the enclosures.
SAS uses a point‐to‐point switched top topology on four lanes. Each lane can perform

concurrent IO transactions at 6 Gb/sec. (Transfer speeds for earlier versions are 3 Gb/
sec.)
Fibre Channel connections were used on the back end for CT‐SC040 controllers. Fibre

Channel IO cards can be migrated from CT‐SC040 controllers to SC8000 controllers.

System Administration

The following connections are used for communicating with computers outside of Storage
Center:
Serial: Used for initial configuration and other service‐related tasks.

Ethernet: Used for administration and IPC between the controllers.

ETH 0 port: Configuration, administration, and management of a Storage Center.

ETH 1 port: Inter‐Process Communications (IPC) between controllers.

iDRAC: Provides access to the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) for

integrated peer controller management through a dedicated 1 Gb Ethernet port.
Dell Compellent
Note: The Ethernet ports on the back of the controller can operate at 10 Mb , 100
Mb or 1 Gb. These ports are not used for server or enclosure connectivity. For
optimal performance, connect to the port using 1 Gbps.
Communication Links
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