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Disk drive sizes and types
Spare drives
Array sizing (capacity)
Number of Fibre Channel presented virtual LUNs
Number of iSCSI and FCoE initiators
iSCSI module: Maximum of 256 initiators or logins
◦
iSCSI/FCoE module: Maximum of 1024 initiators or logins
◦
Number of virtual LUNs to be presented to the iSCSI and FCoE initiators
iSCSI module: Maximum of 255 LUNs (plus LUN 0)
◦
iSCSI/FCoE module: Maximum of 1020 combined iSCSI and FCoE LUNs (plus LUN 0
◦
from each virtual port group)
NOTE:
FCoE requires a converged network switch which implements data center bridging (DCB)
standards for lossless Ethernet.
Building a high-performance, highly available IP storage network (IP-SAN) can be done several
ways. In general, consider enterprise-class switch infrastructure (described in
recommended switch capabilities for a P6300/P6500 EVA-based IP-SAN" (page
packet discard, packet loss, and unpredictable performance. For the 10 GbE IP-SAN, consider
implementing it on a lossless Ethernet network, utilizing DCB switches. Within a 10 GbE based
data center, consider implementing the FCoE protocol.
General IP-SAN recommendations
For Microsoft Windows Server environments, implement MPIO and HP DSM for NIC
fault-tolerance and superior performance.
For other operating systems, where supported, implement NIC bonding in the host software
for NIC fault-tolerance and performance.
Implement a separate subnet or VLAN for the IP storage network for dedicated bandwidth.
Implement separate FCoE and iSCSI VLANs.
Implement a fault-tolerant switch environment as a separate VLAN through a core switch
infrastructure or multiple redundant switches.
Set the individual 1 and 10 gigabit ports connected to the storage nodes and servers at auto
negotiate full-duplex at both the switch and host/node port level.
Implement switches with full-duplex non-blocking mesh backplanes with sufficient port buffer
cache (at least 512 KB per port).
Implement flow control on the storage network switch infrastructure. Flow control can
dramatically impact performance in a 10 GbE environment. This is especially true in mixed
1 GbE and 10 GbE environments. When a network port becomes saturated, excess frames
may be dropped because the port cannot physically handle the amount of traffic received.
This causes the packets to be resent, and the overhead of resending the packets can decrease
performance.
For example, if a 10 GbE link sends data at 10 Gb/s to a single 1 GbE link, flow control
eliminates any problems by controlling the speed at which data is sent to the port. Best practices
dictate that flow control always be enabled and it must be enabled on both the switches and
6
Reviewing and confirming your plans
All manuals and user guides at all-guides.com
"Minimum
7)) to minimize
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