Cabling A Single-Controller N6000 Series Filer - IBM N6000 Series Installation And Setup Instructions

high-availability when cabling the filer to expansion units, do not connect the first expansion unit
(upper controller A and lower controller B) in a loop to two onboard Fibre Channel ports that are
controlled by the same chip set. Always cable your expansion units to ports or slots on different
chipsets. This is especially important when cabling your expansion units in dual-path configurations
for high availability.
v If your system uses SyncMirror or MetroCluser, use Fibre Channel ports 0a and 0b for Pool 0 and ports
0c and 0d for Pool 1.
Important: If you are using optional adapter cards instead of the onboard Fibre Channel ports to connect
your system to expansion units, refer to the "Cabling your system using Fibre Channel expansion
adapters" section in the N6000 Series Hardware and Service Guide. See the appropriate "Optional adapter
cards" appendix in the N Series Introduction and Planning Guide for the required port usage and
specifications for the optional adapter cards supported by N6000 series systems.
The following cabling instructions show basic single-node and active/active cabling examples to
EXN1000, EXN2000 or EXN4000 storage expansion units.
N6000 series systems also support connections to SAS storage expansion units. For information about
cabling SAS storage expansion units, refer to the IBM System Storage N series Universal SAS and ACP
Cabling Guide.
Note: The SAS ports and Alternate Control Path (ACP) ports on SAS storage expansion unit
Input/Output modules (IOMs) are designated by square and circle symbols. All cabling is done in
reference to connecting to either square or circle ports. SAS connectivity does not use the concept of In
and Out ports.
The following cabling diagrams show two common multipath cabling configurations using the onboard
SAS ports on your N6000 series filer controller nodes. Multipath storage for high availability
(active/active) configurations provides redundancy for the path from each controller to every storage
expansion unit in the configuration.

Cabling a single-controller N6000 series filer

Use these instructions to connect a single-controller N6000 series filer (models A10, A11, A12) to the
storage expansion units.
Make sure that all expansion unit speed switches are set to the 2 Gb or 4 Gb (if supported) position. If
necessary, see the documents that came with the expansion unit for information about checking and/or
setting the switch.
Notes:
v SAS storage expansion units, such as the EXN3000 and EXN3500, do not have speed switches.
v Figure 9 on page 12 shows storage system connections to EXN2000/EXN4000 storage expansion units.
On EXN1000 expansion units, the positions of the In and Out ports are reversed from those of the
EXN2000/EXN4000.
v Figure 9 on page 12 shows only the first expansion unit in a loop. The number of expansion units per
loop might be different for your configuration.
Installation and setup instructions
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