User Guide

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3 Setting Up a Storage Area
Network
This chapter shows step by step how to set up a shared
volume on an Xsan SAN.
This chapter explains how to connect the SAN networks, prepare RAID arrays (LUNs),
use the Xsan Admin application, set up a new SAN, and create a shared volume. This
chapter also tells you how to administer Xsan remotely, rename a SAN, remove a SAN,
set up additional SANs, and manage multiple SANs.
Connecting Computers and Storage Devices
Before you open Xsan Admin to configure your SAN, you need to connect client
computers, controller computers, and storage devices to the SAN’s Fibre Channel and
Ethernet networks. Make sure your networks meet the requirements summarized
under “Fibre Channel Fabric” on page 24 and “Ethernet TCP/IP Network” on page 25.
Preparing LUNs
New RAID systems often come already configured as one or more RAID arrays. So, out
of the box, your RAID system might provide LUNs that you can use for most SAN
applications. For details, see the documentation for your RAID system. Unless you have
well-defined, special needs, no other LUN preparation is needed.
If you want to set up some other combination of RAID arrays or slices, use the
management application that comes with your RAID systems to create other arrays
before you add the resulting LUNs to your SAN’s storage pools. For information about
choosing a RAID scheme, see “Choosing RAID Schemes for LUNs” on page 30.
Note: Don’t use Disk Utility to format arrays or slices for use with Xsan. LUNs are
labeled and initialized when you add them to a storage pool using Xsan Admin. After
they are labeled, the LUNs can’t be modified using Disk Utility.
Be sure to create arrays of the same size if you plan to add them to the same storage
pool. For more information, see “Assigning LUNs to Affinity Tags” on page 32.