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20 BP1038| Best Practices and Guidelines for Integrating the Dell EqualLogic FS7600 and FS7610 into an Existing SAN
The internal network is used for communication between NAS controllers. FS Series controllers within the
same appliance will communicate over their internal PCIe connection, while appliances extend cluster
communications to the SAN switches. Each FS Series cluster requires its own unique block of IP addresses
for this purpose. When the internal network is configured, you can choose one of the following options:
• 256 IP addresses (/24) – specifies 256 for the IP address block size
• 128 IP addresses (/25) – specifies 128 for the IP address block size
• 64 IP address (/26) – specifies 64 for the IP address block size
In most cases, since the SAN should be comprised of physically isolated network switches, the internal
network only needs to be unique from the IP addresses used for the storage interfaces on the FS Series
NAS controllers and the storage arrays. The use of private (non-routable) IP address blocks such as
10.0.0.0, 192.168.x.x, and 172.16.0.0 are generally acceptable to use for this purpose and the network
block (or subnet mask) chosen has no impact on system performance.
8.3 Pool configuration
Each EqualLogic group allows up to four separate pools. A pool logically separates storage arrays. For
example, a volume in Pool A will not share arrays (and therefore physical disk spindles) with arrays in Pool
B. Pools can be used to keep volumes on separate arrays or RAID levels, and it can also be used to
separate application workloads. For example, if a new FS Series NAS Appliance will be added to an existing
SAN, depending on the current workloads on the SAN, it may be desirable to configure the FS Series NAS
Appliance to use a separate pool so that it does not impact performance in the existing pool.
Using a separate pool requires at least one new array, or enough free space that an existing array can be
moved (evacuated) from the existing shared pool to create a new pool for the FS Series NAS Appliance. If
an existing array is moved from another pool, also note that this could affect the performance in the
existing pool since the number of spindles available in that pool would be reduced. Careful consideration
of the current workload as well as required storage capacity should be taken before removing arrays from
a pool that contains existing volumes.
In most cases, the choice will be between adding a new array (or arrays) or to allow the FS Series NAS
Appliance to reside in the same pool as the other workloads. Using a separate pool provides for greater
separation of the block and file I/O workloads, however it may also prevent some efficiency (in disk space
utilization) that may be gained by sharing the same pool. Refer to the following table for general
recommendations.