This post is more than 5 years old
4 Posts
0
89431
MD3200i iSCSI
Dear all,
I am requiring information on the configuration of iSCSI. I'm supervising a IT solutions company who are installing a M1000e with 6 x M670 blade servers and a MD3200i SAN.
They are wanting to do the following configuration:
MD3200i
controller 0 port 0: 10.10.1.101
controller 0 port 1: 10.10.1.102
controller 0 port 2: 10.10.2.101
controller 0 port 3: 10.10.2.102
controller 1 port 0: 10.10.1.103
controller 1 port 1: 10.10.1.104
controller 1 port 2: 10.10.2.103
controller 1 port 3: 10.10.2.104
All subnet masks 255.255.255.0
The 10.10.1.X network would then connect to a Powerconnect M6348 in slot A1 and the 10.10.2.X network connects to Powerconnect M6348 in slot A2. The A slots will only be used for iSCSI
They also have M6348 in slot B1 and B2, which will be used for LAN connectivity and Management LAN.
Slot A1 and A2 can only use half of the port on the M6348 as they have only 2 LOM. I think that the company should use slots B1 and B2 for the iSCSI.
Can you please give technical suggestions on what would be better, the above configuration using Slots A1 and A2 or Dell's default configuration of 4 different subnets and the use of slots B1 and B2
Thanks
Dev Mgr
4 Operator
4 Operator
•
9.3K Posts
1
May 21st, 2012 05:00
That subnet layout is very wrong. You'll want to use 4 subnets (like the factory default settings).
When changing from the factory defaults, do something like this:
Controller 0 Port 0: 192.168.130.101 -> 10.10.1.101
Controller 0 Port 1: 192.168.131.101 -> 10.10.2.101
Controller 0 Port 2: 192.168.132.101 -> 10.10.3.101
Controller 0 Port 3: 192.168.133.101 -> 10.10.4.101
Controller 1 Port 0: 192.168.130.102 -> 10.10.1.101
Controller 1 Port 1: 192.168.131.102 -> 10.10.2.101
Controller 1 Port 2: 192.168.132.102 -> 10.10.3.101
Controller 1 Port 3: 192.168.133.102 -> 10.10.4.101
In other words; "Ports 0" on 1 subnet, "Ports 1" on a second subnet, "Ports 2" on a third subnet and "Ports 3" on a fourth subnet.
As you can only use 2 ports on each blade for iSCSI in your setup (due to the dual lan ports on the motherboard), you have some blades use 10.10.1 + 10.10.2 and other blades use 10.10.3 + 10.10.4. This lets each blade use 2 ports per controller, which matches the number of NIC ports used for iSCSI on that blade.
I usually 'stagger' the ports between the fabrics (0 to A1, 1 to A2, 2 to A1 and 3 to A2).
Mon IT
4 Posts
0
May 21st, 2012 21:00
Hi Dev Mgr,
Thank you for your help.
Dev Mgr
4 Operator
4 Operator
•
9.3K Posts
0
May 22nd, 2012 21:00
I noticed 1 big mistaken in my previous post... I repeated the last number in each IP.
It should have been:
Controller 0 Port 0: 192.168.130.101 -> 10.10.1.101
Controller 0 Port 1: 192.168.131.101 -> 10.10.2.101
Controller 0 Port 2: 192.168.132.101 -> 10.10.3.101
Controller 0 Port 3: 192.168.133.101 -> 10.10.4.101
Controller 1 Port 0: 192.168.130.102 -> 10.10.1.102
Controller 1 Port 1: 192.168.131.102 -> 10.10.2.102
Controller 1 Port 2: 192.168.132.102 -> 10.10.3.102
Controller 1 Port 3: 192.168.133.102 -> 10.10.4.102
Mon IT
4 Posts
0
May 24th, 2012 03:00
Hi Dev Mgr,
Thanks for updating. The IT solutions company are asking for technical reasons for why the IP address scheme format should be the as same as the defaults. They have sent me a drawing of their design (IP addresses a little different) and said that with their design, that from the switch to SAN the iSCSI has four redundant paths.
I'm not a SAN engineer so I don't know how to answer them. What are the technical reasons for using 4 subnets as per default and not as per their drawing.
Thanks,
Alastair
Diagram of the way IT solution company want to wire SAN
Dev Mgr
4 Operator
4 Operator
•
9.3K Posts
0
May 24th, 2012 09:00
This IP layout is per Dell's deployment guide and getting started guide (available from ). In those Dell documents every single setup that shows the IP addresses shows to use 4 subnets.
If the IT solutions company has any Dell best practices documentation that says something different, can they provide the links where they got it?
Mon IT
4 Posts
0
May 27th, 2012 07:00
Hi, Thanks. They don't have any Dell documentation giving the design that they want to use. I'm going to recommend not to deviate from Dell's best practice.