NetApp FC4600 Hardware Cabling Manual page 52

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A HIC is connected to a host adapter: a host bus adapter (HBA) for Fibre Channel or
SAS, or an Ethernet adapter for iSCSI. The host adapter in the host must match the
type of HIC to which it is connected.
For best performance, connect an 8-Gb/s Fibre Channel HIC to an 8-Gb/s HBA. If the
data rate for the HBA is lower, the data transfer rate will be at the lower rate. For
instance, if you connect an 8-Gb/s Fibre Channel HIC to a 4-Gb/s HBA, the data
transfer rate is 4 Gb/s.
It is possible for a host to have both iSCSI and Fibre Channel adapters for connections
to a storage array that has a mix of HICs. Several restrictions apply to such
configurations:
The root boot feature is not supported for hosts with mixed connections to one

storage array.
Cluster configurations are supported for hosts with mixed connections to one

storage array.
When the host operating system is VMware, mixing connection types within a

storage partition is not supported.
When the host operating system is Windows, mixing connection types within a

storage partition is not supported. A single server that attaches to multiple storage
partitions on a single storage array must not have any overlap in LUN number
assignments given to the volumes.
For other operating systems, mixed connection types from a host to a single

storage array are not supported.