It presents storage using a different protocol. The CX3-20 presents storage as a block device (LUN). The gateway presents storage as an NFS export, SMB share, or iSCSI target (the CX3 may support iSCSI natively; I know the CX4 does).

If you mean how to provision storage so that it can be used by the NAS gateway just go to Powerlink

Home > Support > Product and Diagnostic Tools > Celerra Tools > NS40G Gateway

Configure the Celerra

Configure additional storage for your gateway system
http://corpusweb130.corp.emc.com/ns/common/post_install/Config_storage_gatway.htm

the run Rescan Storage in the Celerra Manager GUI or server_devconfig -c -s -a in the CLI

Once the new LUNs are recognized by the Celerra you can use the Celerra Manager wizards to create file systems and shares

Rainer,

the "supported" RAID configuration applies to gateways as well or only the integrated units ? You can't create a 2+1R5 in Navi and expect it to be recognized in Celerra ..even if it's a gateway ? Is it safe to say that all Celerra (FC enabled, Integrated and Gateway) have to follow supported RAID config ?

right, i was referring to the NAS part of the config. So if you look at the link that Rainer posted, it simply says create RAID-5 LUN, it does not go into details that you have to follow specific guidelines in order for Celerra to recognize the LUN. To be honest i find documentation pertaining disk provisioning for Celerra to be very fragmented, you have to go to one link to find out that you have to use this LUN size, this Host id. And then you have another document (pdf) that describes which RAID group types are supported and then you have to go to another document to find out how to rescan Celerra to actually see these devices. For people who are new to Celerra this has got to be very frustrating. Are there any efforts to consolidate these documents, some sort of proc generator or something ?

Hi,

actually, the templates are designed only for the NAS part of the box.
On gateway or FC enabled models, you can have all kinds of configurations supported by the CLARiiON, but you can only assign to the NAS storagegroup LUNs of raid groups that matches the templates listed on the NAS Support Matrix.


Gustavo Barreto.

Yes...I agree.
The documentation is not up to date. All you said is true nowadays.

I will get back to you when I receive some answer from the tech writers...


Gustavo Barreto.

Hi,

While I agree that some documentation might be improved, the link Rainer pasted here says :

Always create user LUNs in balanced pairs, one owned by
SP A and one owned by SP B. The paired LUNs must be equal size.
b. For Fibre Channel disks, the paired LUNs do not have to be in the same RAID group. For RAID 5 on Fibre Channel disks, the RAID group must use five or nine disks. RAID 1 groups always use two disks.
c. For ATA disks, all LUNs in a RAID group must belong to the same SP. The Celerra system will stripe across pairs of disks from different RAID groups. ATA disks can be configured as RAID 5 with seven disks or RAID 3 with five or nine disks.
d. The Host ID must be greater than or equal to 16 (0x10) for user LUNs. Do not accept the default value assigned by the interface if it is less than 16.


It states the number of disks for the RG and the host id's for the LUNs.


We have a very good procedure generator, but only for internal use.

I will raise a question for the tech writers about having a procedure generator for customers...It might be a good idea.


Gustavo Barreto.

there is no reference of RAID-6, maximum LUN size. I also heard that ATA LUNs from the same RG don't have to be on the same SP anymore (new drive paddle on CX3/CX4 SATA II drives) so proc gen would be awesome.

Thanks Gustavo

no 2+1R5 no matter whether Integrated or gateway

and yes, the documentation for storage provisioning could use some improvement

I agree

I suggest you give that feedback to EMC formally