HP VMA SAN Gateway for VMA-series Memory Arrays Release Notes - August 2012 - Software OE version G5.1.0

Figure 2: VMA SAN Gateway – back view (P/N AM465A)

The FC HBA ports in the VMA SAN Gateway act as storage target ports which are connected to a FC

SAN Switch to provide host initiator port connectivity. The VMA SAN Gateway is only supported

with SAN Fabric attach; FC direct attach from a server FC port to a FC port on the gateway is not

supported. It is recommended that no more than two dual port 8Gb FC adapters (four target ports)

be deployed in the VMA SAN Gateway for each VMA-series Memory Array connected to avoid over

subscribing gateway and array resources. Four 8Gb FC ports (two dual port HBAs) are sufficient to

attain full I/O bandwidth of a single connected VMA-series array.

For Redundant VMA SAN Gateway Pairs, it is recommended that the optional add-on FC HBAs are

not used since the addition of the target FC ports with a ‘secondary’ gateway provide additional

connectivity and enough throughput capability to fully utilize the available bandwidth of up to two

dually connected VMA Arrays.

VMA-series Memory Arrays are connected to the VMA SAN Gateway using the VMA PCIe Pass-Thru

Card and directly connecting from the PCIe Pass Thru Card port to the Primary PCIe port of the

VMA-series Memory Array using the VMA 3-meter PCIe cable that ships with the VMA array.

Important: The VMA PCIe Pass-Thru cards must only be inserted into I/O slots 1 or 4 of the

VMA SAN Gateway (see above). The two FC 8Gb dual port adapters, which come with the

VMA SAN Gateway, are pre-inserted into I/O slots 2 and 3 of the gateway. If two VMA-

series Memory Arrays will be connected to the gateway, it is advised to order two additional

dual port 8Gb FC adapters, P/N AJ764A, for insertion into I/O slots 5 and 6. The VMA SAN

Gateway supports a maximum of two VMA-series Arrays and four dual port 8Gb FC

adapters (P/N AJ764A).

Note that the VMA Pass-Thru cards and FC HBAs are not hot-swappable. Connection from the VMA

SAN Gateway to the primary port of the VMA-series Array will require you to power down the VMA

SAN Gateway and the VMA Array. In order to have the PCIe busses of the VMA array correctly

connect electronically, you need to first power up the VMA array, wait until the PCIe bus indicators

light (about a minute) and then power up the VMA SAN Gateway. If the VMA SAN Gateway is

powered up before the VMA Array, the VMA array may not identify and be discovered by the VMA

SAN Gateway.

Only SAN attach is supported, meaning that connections from host servers to the SAN Gateway

must connect through a Fibre Channel SAN switch; direct FC attach from host server to SAN

Gateway is not supported.

For a standalone VMA SAN Gateway, one VMA PCIe Pass-Thru card must be ordered with each

VMA-series Memory Array. Note that the VMA PCIe cable is connected to the Primary PCIe port of

the VMA-series Memory Array which is the left-most port when viewing the back of the array.