what is best network configuration for iSCSI will give best performance?

dedicated VLAN or physical network switch, jumbo frames.  On the host side you could use TOE cards (network cards dedicated for iSCSI)  to offload load from CPU.

thank you.  what should I do for the ceg0-3?  I like to use Link Aggregation?  What do I need to do on my switch?  do I need to trunk 2 port with LACP?  thank you.

you will need to setup LACP ports on the switch and then setup LACP trunk on Celerra. Take a look at paper "Configuring and Managing Celerra Network High Availability"

It depends on what all you are going to run on this Celerra.

If iSCSI traffic is the only one protocol to be used - you can configure all 4 ports in a LACP channel (we call it Trunk on the NAS side). The respective switch ports on the Ethernet switch also need to be configured for LACP channel. On the logical device (trunk) comprising these 4 ports, you can still create multiple IP Addresses (Interfaces) - and use the IP addresses for differnt purpose. You may also use multiple VLANs if needed, in that case the VLAN tagging needs to be done on the NAS end and keep the switch ports as VLAN Trunk port.

Another option may be you can configure two LACP trunks - with two ports on each trunk. But as I mentioned earlier, it all depends on how you are going the use it.

We also provide Fail Safe Network which is another high availability solution to have Ethernet Switch level redundancy.

As "dynamox" already suggested - please refer to the "Configuring and Managing Celerra Network High Availability" for all the details.

My 2 cents
Sandip

yes, whatever you configure on server_2 has to be identical on server_3  ..otherwise if failover occurs, networking will not work.

Thank you Sandip. I think I will use 2 ports for LACP trunk for iSCSI,

one port for LACP trunk FSN and other one for CIFS share, backup and

management use.

On my switch side, I will create a VLAN this for iSSCI LACP trunk.

Does this sounds right to you?

Do I need to setup the same configuration on the data mover 3.

Henry

I think I will use 2 ports for LACP trunk for iSCSI, one port for LACP trunk FSN and other one for CIFS share, backup and management use.

Yes you can use 2 cge ports as a LACP trunk for iSCSI. But for the rest two ports - either you can use one LACP with two ports or use them individually.

FSN is separate than Trunk - for FSN you need one device as primary and one device as secondary on the same data mover. The primary device may be a n individual port or a LACP trunk and so as secondary device can be a trunk or individual device or a combination.

And as "dynamox" already mentioned, for standby mover - you need not to create any configuration (in fact you 'll not be able to) as it gets the configuration from the active data mover for which it will be taking over.

But, you need to have the same physical network connectivity on the standby data mover and same ethernet switch port configuration. I.e. if cge0 and cge1 on primary data mover are in a LACP trunk - you need to configure two LACP trunks on the Ethernet switch - one for the primary data mover ports and one for the standby data mover ports.

Hope this helps,

By the way, Welcome to the EMC Support forum and EMC Community Network. If the posts provide the information you were looking for, please mark the Thread as "Answered" and select appropriate replies as "Correct" and /or "Helpful".

Thanks,
Sandip

of course you don't configure the standby itself - but you need to make sure it's ports are connected to and configured on the switch side the same as the primary data mover one's

Rainer

Thank you so much. it is very helpful information.

I just have one more general question. I currently have 2 data pool but only 1 hot spare. Will the hot spare kicks in when either data pool have defective hard disk?

what kind of drives do you have in the system ?

Below is what I going to do for the network configuration.

I will use 2 HP switches. SwitchA and SwitchB, and create a VLAN name “iSCSI”. Two switches have LACP trunk connected with “iSCSI” VLAN tagged

SwitchA:

enable 2 port with LACP trunk, untag iSCSI VLAN and connect to Active data mover for LACP trunk.

1 port untag iSCI VLAN connect to standby date mover.

1 port untag default VLAN connect to active date mover for management, CIFS, backup and others….

SwitchB:

enable 2 port with LACP trunk, untag iSCSI VLAN and connect to standby mover for LACP trunk.

1 port untag iSCI VLAN connect to active data mover as secondary FSN for LACP trunk for active data mover.

1 port untag default VLAN connect to standby date mover.

Will this setup work correctly? Any suggestion. Thank you.

They are all 536GB SAS drive.

So to recap your config from Celerra end - it will look as follows -

DM2 - Active data mover

DM2 - cge0, cge1 ------> LACP trunk  ---> FSN Primary -----> to  Switch A (Switch ports are configured for LACP channel and on the iSCSI VLAN)

DM2 - cge2 ----------------------------------------> FSN secondary --> to Switch B (switch port configured for iSCSI VLAN)

DM2 - cge3 --------------------------------------------------------------------> to Switch A (switch port configured for default VLAN) - for CIFS, backup and others

DM3 - Standby data mover

DM3 - cge0, cge1 ------> LACP trunk  ---> FSN Primary -----> to  Switch B (Switch ports are configured for LACP channel and on the iSCSI VLAN)

DM3 - cge2 ----------------------------------------> FSN secondary --> to Switch A (switch port configured for iSCSI VLAN)

DM3 - cge3 --------------------------------------------------------------------> to Switch B (switch port configured for default VLAN) - for CIFS, backup and others

This will definitely work and looks to be a quite good configuration providing you both link aggregation as well as switch level redundancy for iSCSI traffic.

on the hot spare question - the hot spare in the array is a global one and can be a hot spare for all identical disks.

Hope this helps,
Sandip

Sounds good.. thank you for all your help.

Pleasure to be of any help.

If you have found the info you were looking for - request you to kindly mark the thread as "Answered" and select the appropriate replies as Correct and Helpful. You may select one Correct and upto 3 helpful answers.

Catch you later on the forums - have a great weekend.

Sandip