Release Notes

PS Series SAN design
35 Dell PS Series Configuration Guide
8.1.2 General requirements and recommendations
For PS Series arrays, the following general SAN design recommendations apply:
• To ensure a secure network environment, Dell EMC strongly recommends the following:
- The network environment in which the group resides should be secure from network attacks such
as packet sniffing or connection hijacking. This includes network hardware such as switches and
routers. Firewalls and network isolation should be employed to protect resources. Network
security can be achieved in a number of ways depending on the level of assurance needed and
the types of network attacks to be expected. Security mechanisms include physical security,
application level encryption (SSL/TLS and SSH), and/or IP level encryption (IPsec).
- Network protocols and services used by the group should be secure and not subject to attacks.
This includes RADIUS authentication, Network Time Protocol (NTP), syslog, and outbound SMTP
traffic.
• For all members (arrays) in a given SAN Group all ports should be connected to the same subnet.
This allows the arrays to communicate with each other as a group of peer members. The arrays must
be in the same subnet as the PS Series Group IP address.
Note: Hosts can be in a different subnet as long as those hosts have layer 3 routing available to the subnet
containing the arrays and the group’s well-known IP address.
• It is strongly recommended that a physically separated network be used for iSCSI traffic and that this
network not be shared with other traffic types.
Note: If there is a requirement to share the same physical networking infrastructure with other non-iSCSI
traffic then Data Center Bridging (DCB) is the recommended method for sharing networking resources.
• Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol must be enabled if the SAN infrastructure has more than two switches
in a non-stacked configuration, and PortFast must be enabled on all edge device ports (hosts, FS
Series appliances and arrays).
• Port density requirements to support fully redundant configurations and maximum SAN throughput
are as follows:
- PS4x00 family: 2x 1GbE ports per controller = 4x 1GbE ports total
- PS4110 family: 1x 10GbE port per controller = 2x 10GbE ports total
- PS4210 family: 2x 10GBASE-T and 2x 10GbE SFP+ ports per controller = 8x 10G ports total
- PS5x00 family: 3x 1GbE ports per controller = 6x 1GbE ports total
- PS6x00 family: 4x 1GbE ports per controller = 8x 1GbE ports total
- PS6510 family: 2x 10GbE ports per controller = 4x 10GbE ports total
- PS6110 family: 1x 10GbE port per controller = 2x 10GbE ports total
- PS6210 family: 2x 10GBASE-T and 2x 10GbE SFP+ ports per controller = 8x 10G ports total
- PS6610 family: 2x 10GBASE-T and 2x 10GbE SFP+ ports per controller = 8x 10G ports total
- FS7500 NAS: 12x1GbE ports per controller node (four client LAN and eight iSCSI SAN) + 1
100/1000Mb port per controller node for IPMI interconnection
- FS7600 NAS Appliance: 16x1GbE Ethernet ports per appliance = 8 x 1Gb Ethernet ports per
NAS controller for client connectivity and 8 x 1GbE Ethernet ports per NAS controller for SAN
connectivity