Storage Center Communication; Front-End Connectivity - Dell SC4020 Deployment Manual

Figure 3. SC4020 Storage System with Two SC280 Expansion Enclosures

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 I/O paths from servers to a storage system and replication paths from
one Storage Center to another Storage Center. The SC4020 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 SC4020 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.
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About the SC4020 Storage System