6.0 HP X9000 File Serving Software Installation (TA768-96041, October 2011)

8 Network best practices for X9720 systems
This document is intended for system consultants, system engineers, onsite installers, HP Technical
Support, and customers of the X9720 Network Storage System.
Overview of the X9720 network
The X9720 series storage network communication is comprised of several networks or network
types, or even more precisely, it can be designated by named sets of IP addresses. It is not required
that each network type/IP address set be on its own exclusive subnet, however it is a best practice
to keep different network types separate from each other to avoid cross-talk, configuration
dependencies, and impact on performance. The main networks in a X9720 series storage system
are Cluster, User, and Management.
Cluster network/cluster IP addresses
The cluster network/cluster IP addresses are used to provide cluster membership, health monitoring,
strategic data movement, and private back-channel communications. The cluster network/cluster
IP addresses must be operational at all times for the system to be fully online and functional and
able to provide High Availability and failover functionality. All file serving nodes in the X9000
Software cluster must be connected to the cluster network. The cluster network is normally placed
on physical IP addresses on a consistent bonded Linux interface. Disruption or slowness of
connectivity between the cluster IP addresses can cause cluster instability and system faults.
User network/user IP addresses
A user network provides client systems access to the file system via the supported file access
protocols such as NFS, CIFS, HTTP, FTP, and X9000 Linux clients. (The user network is also called
the File Serving Network.) All client access, including system administration, is conducted through
the user network. Background data services such as remote replication are also performed over a
user network. User network(s) can normally be defined either through separate physical bonded
interfaces or through virtual IP Addresses/virtual interfaces (VIP/VIF). All user interfaces within the
same user network should be visible to all file serving nodes (FSNs) and clients, so they will fail
over upon any FSN fault. There is no requirement to separate the user and cluster IP addresses on
separate subnets/LANs, but it is advisable to keep network performance and configuration
independent from each other. Disruption of connectivity between user IP addresses is most likely
to cause client faults and access problems for users.
Management network/management IP addresses
Management network/management IP addresses are used for specific management activities such
as configuration changes and power management. The default configuration of the X9720 places
the Onboard Administrator (OA), Virtual Connect administration (VC), bond0, and iLO interfaces
on a single private subnet: 172.16.0.0/255.255.248.0. This is referenced as the private
management network. However, it is not truly a management network, as the cluster network is
the defined place for most cluster management traffic. The private management network is used
for iLO access for power management and fencing blade servers. This network is currently private
by default for X9720 deployments. In many cases, faults accessing the management IP addresses
will remove reconfiguration capabilities, although in the case of a server fault, the inability to
access the iLO management IP for the failed blade will inhibit proper failover.
Overview of the X9720 network 63