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8 Best Practices for Deploying a Mixed 1Gb/10Gb Ethernet SAN using Dell Storage PS Series Arrays | BP1008
3 Switch integration configuration
Connecting the 1Gb and 10Gb switch fabrics for iSCSI storage traffic can be accomplished using one of three
methods, depending on the capabilities of the switches being used.
Note: Stacking is a method by which multiple switches are connected using a proprietary stacking port and
thereafter are managed as, and behave as a single switch. A LAG switch uplink connection uses multiple
physical connections, but bundles them together for throughput and individual link redundancy.
3.1 Method 1
The optimal method, if both pair of switches support stacking, is to create a single LAG connection between
the stacked 1Gb and the stacked 10Gb fabrics. The individual connections that make up the LAG will connect
each of the 10Gb switches to each of the 1Gb switches: providing redundancy in the case of a single switch
failure. See Figure 4.
Stacked 1Gb fabric LAGd to stacked 10Gb fabric
3.2 Method 2
If either the 1Gb or the 10Gb switches in use do not support stacking, those switches must be connected
using a LAG. In this case, the LAGd switch fabric would connect to the stacked fabric through the use of four
LAG connections that can use either split (cross) connect or straight connect. Straight connect LAG