HP VMA SAN Gateway for VMA-series Memory Arrays Release Notes - December 2012
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Figure 2: VMA SAN Gateway G7 – back view (P/N AM465A)
Figure : VMA SAN Gateway Gen8 – back view (P/N A0R65A)
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