Celerra NS40C Integrated vs. Gateway

Question

Hello,      My company is running a Celerra NS40C storage array.  From what I understand, this means that the Celerra data movers are directly connected to the CLARiiON storage.  I have visually confirmed this by inspecting the fiber in the back of the cabinet.  To support a SAN switch upgrade/migration project, I would like to move all these connections to a new pair of SAN switches.  My local EMC sales/support team has told me 'no problem, that's a great idea because it will give you more host-facing target ports to work with in your fabric.'  It wasn't until I opened a case with EMC on a related topic that I found out that my NS40 is in 'Integrated' mode, and will need to be converted to 'Gateway' mode.  Is anyone familiar with this process?  Can you please shed some light for me on what changes must be made to the array to make this happen?  Is there a command that needs to be run to tell the array to stop operating in Integrated mode and start operating in Gateway mode? EMC Celerra NS40 EMC CLARiiON CX3-40f CURRENT CONNECTIONS: CLARiiON SP A0 -----> Old SAN director 1 CLARiiON SP A1 -----> Old SAN director 2 CLARiiON SP A2 -----> Data Mover A, Port BE0 CLARiiON SP A3 -----> Data Mover B, Port BE0 CLARiiON SP B0 -----> Old SAN director 1 CLARiiON SP B1 -----> Old SAN director 2 CLARiiON SP B2 -----> Data Mover A, Port BE1 CLARiiON SP B3 -----> Data Mover B, Port BE1 PROPOSED CONNECTIONS: CLARiiON SP A0 -----> Old SAN director 1 CLARiiON SP A1 -----> Old SAN director 2 CLARiiON SP A2 -----> New SAN director 1 CLARiiON SP A3 -----> New SAN director 2 CLARiiON SP B0 -----> Old SAN director 1 CLARiiON SP B1 -----> Old SAN director 2 CLARiiON SP B2 -----> New SAN director 1 CLARiiON SP B3 -----> New SAN director 2 Data Mover A, Port BE0 -----> New SAN director 1 Data Mover A, Port BE1 -----> New SAN director 2 Data Mover B, Port BE0 -----> New SAN director 1 Data Mover B, Port BE1 -----> New SAN director 2 I've been told that array must be changed to 'Gateway' mode in order to support my proposed configuration.  Can someone please shed some light on this?  I've been told that the CLARiiON ports that are currently directly attached to the Celerra ports WILL NOT WORK when connected to a SAN switch.  Any insight or explanation that the community can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Rainer_EMC · Answer

Hi Vinn,

conversion from an NS Integrated to a gateway is not a regular procedure and may not be available depending on your model and config.

You need to work directly with your local EMC sales and technical team.

You cannot just unplug the direct-connected and put a switch in between - it requires reconfiguration that would need to be done by EMC service.

Rainer

Vinn2 · Answer

Can you please provide a little more detail of what needs to be done to the array?  Could you please describe the configuration that needs to be done by EMC service?

nandas · Answer

You can not simply take the CLARiiON ports which are directly connected to the data movers and run them via switch - it may not work.

The conversion is a very much technical process and critical to your availability of the data - it needs to be done by EMC support engineer or EMC authorized service personnel.

The CLARiiON which is an integrated one needs to be changed as a normal CLARiiON - where other hosts can also be connected and configured to access CLARiiON LUNs.

Changes are required to be done on the NAS end as well.

And during the process, the connectivity will be moved to SAN switches and proper zoning needs to be done

So, as Rainer suggested please work with your local EMC team for this conversion.

By the way, warm Welcometo the EMC Support Forum and EMC Community Network.
Regards,
Sandip

Celerra

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