General Requirements And Recommendations - Dell EqualLogic PS6100 series Configuration Manual

7.1.2

General requirements and recommendations

For EqualLogic PS Arrays, the following general SAN design requirements apply:
•
For all members (arrays) in a given SAN Group all ports should be connected to the same subnet.
This allows the arrays to communicate with each other as a group of peer members. The arrays
must be in the same subnet as the group's "well known" IP address.
Note: Hosts can be in a different subnet as long as those hosts have layer 3 routing
available to the subnet containing the arrays and the group's well known IP address.
•
It is strongly recommended that a physically separated network be used for iSCSI traffic and that
this network not be shared with other traffic types.
Note: If there is a requirement to share the same physical networking infrastructure with
other non-iSCSI traffic then Data Center Bridging (DCB) is the recommended method for
sharing networking resources.
•
Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol must be enabled if the SAN infrastructure has more than two
switches in a non-stacked configuration, and portfast must be enabled on all edge device ports
(hosts, FS Series appliances and arrays).
•
Port density requirements to support fully redundant configurations and maximum SAN
throughput are as follows:
•
PS4x00 family: 2x 1GbE ports per controller = 4x 1GbE ports total
•
PS4110 family: 1x 10GbE port per controller = 2x 10GbE ports total
•
PS5x00 family: 3x 1GbE ports per controller = 6x 1GbE ports total
•
PS6x00 family: 4x 1GbE ports per controller = 8x 1GbE ports total
•
PS6510 family: 2x 10GbE ports per controller = 4x 10GbE ports total
•
PS6110 family: 1x 10GbE port per controller = 2x 10GbE ports total
•
FS7500 NAS: 12x1GbE ports per controller node (four client LAN and eight iSCSI SAN) + 1
100/1000Mb port per controller node for IPMI interconnection
•
FS7600 NAS Applicance: 16x1GbE Ethernet ports per appliance = 8 x 1Gb Ethernet ports per
NAS controller for client connectivity and 8 x 1GbE Ethernet ports per NAS controller for
SAN connectivity
•
FS7610 NAS Appliance: 8x10GbE Ethernet ports per appliance = 4 x 10GbE SFP+ Ethernet
ports per NAS controller for client connectivity and 4 x 10GbE SFP+ Ethernet ports per NAS
controller for SAN connectivity
•
At least two iSCSI SAN ports per host (block level iSCSI access) are required for fully redundant
SAN connectivity. Host ports can be 1GbE or 10GbE.
•
Quality of Service (QoS) based on what is traditionally designated as IEEE 802.1p is not currently
supported for use with EqualLogic SANs. QoS and Class of Service designations must be disabled.
•
All switches within the SAN must be interconnected such that there is always a path from any
Ethernet port on one array to all other Ethernet ports on all other arrays in the group.
•
All switches and host network controllers within the infrastructure must have flow control enabled
for optimal performance.
March 2013 Dell EqualLogic Configuration Guide v14.1 7-61