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BP1024 Scaling and Best Practices for Virtual Workload Environments with the FS7500 41
5.3 Network
You should use separate network infrastructure (network switches) for the client network (LAN) and
the FS7500 SAN + Internal Communication network.
5.3.1 SAN design
• Redundant inter-connected switches or switching fabrics are recommended for the SAN
network infrastructure to ensure high-availability. Switch inter-connects (stack or LAG) should
be properly sized with to provide the required bandwidth for the PS Series arrays.
• Flow control should be enabled on the switch ports connecting to the FS7500 and the arrays.
• Enable jumbo frames (MTU 9216) on the switch ports connecting to the FS7500 and the
arrays.
• The FS7500 internal network NIC ports and storage NIC ports should be connected so that
any single component failure in the SAN will not disable access to any storage array volumes
or peer FS7500 controllers.
• The FS7500 internal NICs and SAN NICs should be on the same layer 2 network and not
separated by VLANs.
• For all FS7500 controllers, ensure that their corresponding NIC ports are connected on the
same switch. For example, the first internal NIC of each FS7500 controller should connect to
the same switch (“switch1”) in the network. The second internal NIC for each FS7500
controller should connect to the same switch, but it can be a different switch from the first
internal NIC (both of these NICs can connect to “switch1” or “switch2”).
• Disable spanning tree on switch ports connecting to end devices like FS7500 ports and
storage ports. Portfast should be enabled for these ports.
Note: General recommendations for EqualLogic PS Series array network configuration and
performance is provided in the following documents:
PS Series Array Network Performance Guidelines
:
http://www.equallogic.com/resourcecenter/assetview.aspx?id=5229
EqualLogic Configuration Guide
:
http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/EqualLogic+Configuration+Guide
5.3.2 LAN design
• Redundant inter-connected switches or switching fabrics are recommended for the LAN
network infrastructure to ensure high-availability.
o Switch inter-connects (stack or LAG) should be properly sized to provide the required
bandwidth for the PS Series arrays.
o Configure the ports on the switches that are connected to the host with static LAG
and choose the source and destination based IP hashing algorithm for load balancing
traffic across the LAG.
• The FS7500 client network NIC ports should be connected in a way such that any single
component failure in the LAN switches will not disable access to the file system.
• Enable flow control on the switches connecting to the FS7500 client network NIC ports.
• Enable jumbo frames (MTU 9216) on the switch ports connecting to the FS7500 client network
NIC ports to assist with large file I/O requests. If enabled, ensure jumbo frames are enabled
across the network end-to-end from the file client to the FS7500 system.