Question on hooking up a SAN to a Server

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azmadman

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May 21, 2014
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Hi ,I have a Netapp DSMK2AT and a Dell R710. How do I hook these together for use? Do I need some kind of card for the server or will some kind of switch work?
 
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In every setup I've worked on, we've used a brocade switch.
http://www.brocade.com/en/possibilities/technology/storage-fabrics-technology.html#

It really depends on what you're doing this for. If you're setting this up at home, you may be able to just connect the SAN straight to the server. The thing the brocade enables is the ability to create groups WWN's (2 in a server) and allow access from this group to a specific LUN on the SAN. You may need database LUN on one SQL server, and a application LUN on a web server, but you may not necessarily want these 2 types of data seeing each other.

The HBA should work, but a couple of things you should look out for. There are several types of fiber connectors, The LC connector is pretty common...
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ss202sl

Glorious
May 23, 2012
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Is this the actual whole SAN system, or just a shelf? Normally the system would have a controller that would connect to the server through a fiber connection, and also a network connection for configuration of the SAN. In most data centers, the fiber connections are made in such a way that SAN can be partitioned into LUNS(like partitions), and those LUNS can be presented to specific devices using World-Wide Names WWN's(like NAC addresses in fiber cards). Also a common setup it to have dual-pathing set up for redundancy - even using multiple fiber switches.

If you don't have a fiber connection, then you'd need a fiber card or a host bus adapter(HBA) for the server, and maybe even a fiber switch for multi-pathing.

 
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azmadman

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May 21, 2014
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Ok thanks for that answer, Would something like an LSI pcie Quad Port 4Gb Fibre Channel PCIe Card LSI7404E2-LC w/4x GBIC work ,do you think? I would like an example of a Switch if you could give one . ?

Thanks
 
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ss202sl

Glorious
May 23, 2012
8,431
35
44,190
In every setup I've worked on, we've used a brocade switch.
http://www.brocade.com/en/possibilities/technology/storage-fabrics-technology.html#

It really depends on what you're doing this for. If you're setting this up at home, you may be able to just connect the SAN straight to the server. The thing the brocade enables is the ability to create groups WWN's (2 in a server) and allow access from this group to a specific LUN on the SAN. You may need database LUN on one SQL server, and a application LUN on a web server, but you may not necessarily want these 2 types of data seeing each other.

The HBA should work, but a couple of things you should look out for. There are several types of fiber connectors, The LC connector is pretty common and you shouldn't have to worry too much about it as long as everything supports LC connectors. The other thing is speeds. The HBA is a 4GB/s speed, and you need to make sure that the SAN, switch and HBA all will support and talk at the same speed.
 
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