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6 Best Practices for Deploying a Mixed 1Gb/10Gb Ethernet SAN using Dell Storage PS Series Arrays | BP1008
2.1 Design considerations for a mixed speed PS Series SAN
To design mixed speed PS Series SANs, two key integration questions require focus:
First: How do you properly design a mixed speed switched Ethernet network fabric?
Proper design and configuration of the Ethernet switching fabric for 1Gb SANs is critical to achieving and
maintaining performance and reliability requirements. The same is true for 10Gb SANs. When you begin to
integrate 10Gb components into an existing SAN consisting of 1Gb arrays you must first carefully consider
how you design the integration points for the 10Gb switches. Integration points are those connections
between hosts (NICS), switches and arrays. This design decision can be critical to the performance and
reliability of the integrated SAN.
Second: How should you configure storage pools (array membership) and volume layout within those pools
when combining 1Gb and 10Gb arrays together in the same SAN?
PS Series Peer Storage functionality allows you to combine multiple arrays (or “members”) into a single
logical storage pool. Physical storage of volumes is automatically distributed across the pool members. This
behavior means that careful consideration to pool membership and volume layout must be taken when mixing
1Gb and 10Gb storage arrays together in the same SAN.
Note: For additional information, see the Dell PS Series Configuration Guide, available at:
http://en.community.dell.com/dell-groups/dtcmedia/m/mediagallery/19852516.
There are many ways to design an iSCSI SAN that integrates 1Gb and 10Gb networks together. A significant
factor affecting the design of a mixed speed iSCSI SAN is the feature set and port density provided by the
Ethernet switches used in the SAN. To create a redundant, mixed speed iSCSI SAN, we recommend that at a
minimum you start with dual 1Gb and dual 10Gb switches.
Figure 3 shows a design pattern for combining 1Gb and 10Gb PS Series SANs. The interconnect between
the mixed speed components in the SAN is accomplished using a 40Gb LAG group as uplink connections
between the stacked 1Gb switches and the stacked 10Gb switches.