Install Guide

6 Best Practices for Sharing an iSCSI SAN Infrastructure with Dell PS Series and SC Series Storage using VMware vSphere
Hosts | 2015-A-BP-INF
1.3 Terminology
The following terms are used throughout this document:
Converged network adapter (CNA): A network adapter that supports convergence of simultaneous
communication of both traditional Ethernet and TCP/IP protocols as well as storage networking protocols
such as internet SCSI (iSCSI) or Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) using the same physical network
interface port.
Data Center Bridging (DCB): A set of enhancements made to the IEEE 802.1 bridge specifications for
supporting multiple protocols and applications in the same data center switching fabric. It is made up of
several IEEE standards including Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS), Priority-based Flow Control
(PFC), Data Center Bridging Exchange (DCBX), and application Type-Length-Value (TLV). For more
information, see the document, Data Center Bridging: Standards, Behavioral Requirements, and
Configuration Guidelines with Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SANs.
EqualLogic Multipathing Extension Module (MEM) for VMware vSphere: The PS Series multipath I/O
(MPIO) module for vSphere.
Fault domain (FD): A set of hardware components that share a single point of failure. For controller-level
redundancy, fault domains are created for SC Series storage to maintain connectivity in the event of a
controller failure. In a dual-switch topology, each switch acts as a fault domain with a separate subnet and
VLAN. Failure of any component in an FD will not impact the other FD.
iSCSI offload engine (iSOE): Technology that can free processor cores and memory resources to increase
I/Os per second (IOPS) and reduce processor utilization.
NIC partitioning (NPAR): A technology used by Broadcom and QLogic which enables traffic on a network
interface card (NIC) to be split into multiple partitions. NPAR is similar to QoS on the network layer and is
usually implemented with 10GbE.
Link aggregation group (LAG): A group of Ethernet switch ports configured to act as a single high-
bandwidth connection to another switch. Unlike a stack, each individual switch must still be administered
separately and function independently.
Local area network (LAN): A network carrying traditional IP-based client communications.
Logical unit (LUN): A number identifying a logical device, usually a volume that is presented by an iSCSI or
Fibre Channel storage controller.
Multipath I/O (MPIO): A host-based software layer that manages multiple paths for load balancing and
redundancy in a storage environment.
Native VLAN and default VLAN: The default VLAN for a packet that is not tagged with a specific VLAN or
has a VLAN ID of 0 or 1. When a VLAN is not specifically configured, the switch default VLAN will be utilized
as the native VLAN.