Hardware manual

Group Administration Group security
4–14
Although a dedicated management network can provide additional group administration security, it has
disadvantages:
• Because you assign the highest-numbered network interface on ea
ch group member to the management
network, iSCSI traffic is limited to the remaining network interfaces. Therefore, total iSCSI bandwidth might
decrease, depending on the control module type.
Note: Some control modules have a network interface that you can use only if you configure a dedicated
ma
nagement network. For these control modules, using a dedicated management network does not
decrease iSCSI bandwidth. See the Hardware Maintenance manual for your array model.
• If the management interface fails in a single-member
group, or if the management network loses connectivity,
you lose management access to the group. However, you can always connect to the serial port on a group
member and use the Group Manager CLI to manage the group.
Only very knowledgeable users should configure a manage
ment network and only if the environment requires
separating management traffic from iSCSI traffic.
Configuring a management network
Before configuring an management network, read the considerations described in About dedicated management
networks (advanced) on page 4
-13.
Prerequisite tasks for configuring a management network
Perform these tasks before configuring a management network:
• Make sure your network environment can support a dedicated management network. You need a subnet for the
mana
gement network that is separate from the subnet (or subnets) for iSCSI traffic.
• Obtain an IP address and default gateway information for the manageme
nt network address. This is the address
to which administrators can connect.
• For each group member, obtain an IP address for the management network interface
. The IP address must be
on the same subnet as the management network address, and this subnet should not be the same that used for
data I/O.
• On each group member, connect at least one network interface,
other than the highest-numbered interface, to
the iSCSI network and configure and enable the interface. For the best performance connect, configure, and
enable all iSCSI-eligible network interfaces. To support control module failover, connect the ports on the
active and secondary control modules to the network.
See Configuring a management network on
pa
ge 4-14.
• On each group member, connect the highest-numbered network interface on
the active and secondary control
modules to the management network.
For example, if you have a three-port control module, connect the Ethernet 2 port on both control modules to
the
management network. For some control modules, this interface is labeled
Management.