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MD3000i - Achieving 2GB traffic to storage device
Hi,
I've been trawling the net looking for answers to this problem.Basically we have a MD3000i with two controllers.It is currently setup with one link from controller 0 port 0 to a single switch which passes both server traffic and iscsi traffic.A Win 2003R2 x64 connects to this switch and server storage to users etc.
I wish to increase the bandwidth to the MD3000i from the server.My plan was as follows.
- Connect 2 nics on the server in a team to the switch in a active/active config giving 2GB of bandwidth to the server from users.
- Connect 2 nics that will be used for iscsi to the switch - Do each of these nics have to be on separate vlans/subnets ?From my research iscsi doesn't like LACP so MPIO is the option to allow both of these nics to function successfully.
- 2 links will be attached from the MD3000i to the switch.To get 2GB of bandwidth to the MD3000i do both links to the switch have to connect to the same controller or do you split the links between the two controllers ,controller A port 0 , controller A port 1 / controller a port0 & controller b port 0?I understand that it is active/active but does that mean that both ports on a raid controller are active at currently or the same ports on both controllers are active concurrently?
Redundancy is not a major issue in this configuration.Throughput is the main objective.If separate vlans/subnets are needed for each of the nics used for iscsi that won't be an issue , likewise if a switch is needed one can be sourced but as far as I can see this is only adding redundancy to the switching layer.
A outline of the physical configuration of the raid controller to achieve this goal with my current configuration would be helpful.
DELL-Kenny K
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May 10th, 2012 10:00
Conorcon,
When it comes to iSCSI there is a couple things that you need to keep in mind. For the NICs that are passing iSCSI traffic you do not want to have them teamed. It will cause far more issues then it is worth. Also it is best to have iSCSI traffic and regular network traffic on separate switches. If that is not possible you want to make sure you at least have them on separate VLANs. The link below is for the array tuning best practices. Let me know if you have any other questions and I would be happy to assist.
support.dell.com/.../MD3XarraytuningA01.pdf
Conorocon
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May 10th, 2012 17:00
Hi Kenny,
Yes regular traffic and iscsi traffic are currently on separate vlans. I understand that teaming is not ideal for iscsi , I intend to use MPIO to achieve traffic over two iscsi nics.
I've read the attached pdf , I am still at odds as to how the iscsi ports should be connected to achieve 2GB of traffic to the device.It is said that it is an active/active array , does this mean that both ports on a single raid controller are active and the second controller is in place for redundancy? Or are corresponding ports on each raid controller active concurrently giving both bandwidth and redundancy?
Also is it required to have both connected ports on separate iscsi vlans?