Need Advise on MSA 1000 SAN Switch Upgrade to HP SAN 4/8 Switch (Brocade 200E) Upgrade

[peterssachs]

Hello Community, I was wondering if anyone could provide some advise of guidance on the following.

My MSA1000 has been running FW 7.00 since it was installed. I have just updated my HP SAN Switch 4/8 units (Brocade 200E) to Firmware 6.2.0d which is the latest version at this time.

I will be migrating my MSA1000 Dual Controller SAN with Dual MSA SAN Switch 6 embedded Switches (old Gadzookz for Compaq) equipment to a new configuration. I will be doing the following:

Disable HA in the Advanced Features Tab of VM-Ware VirtualCenter

Power Everything down

Replace the two MSA SAN Switch 6 (Embedded Gadzookz) switches with a pair of 218960-B21 HP MSA Fibre Channel I/O Module for MSA1000 modules.

Plug the fiber optic cable from the new Fiber Channel I/O Module into the HP SAN Switch 4/8 into port 0 (first Port)

Configure Both Switches for Standard Zoning

On Each or my three ESX 3.5 Update 4 DL380-G5 Server, cable the primary SAN HBA (1 of 2) into the First 4/8 Switch into either ports 3,4,5,6,7 or 8 (Since Default Zoning in in effect)

On Each or my three ESX 3.5 Update 4 DL380-G5 Server, cable the secondary SAN HBA (2 of 2) into the Second 4/8 Switch into either ports 3,4,5,6,7 or 8 (Since Default Zoning in in effect)

Since this switch does not have ISL being a 4/8 Base Model Switch I do not need to be concerned with interconnecting switches in any way (correct?)

Lock down each port on the Switch 4/8 from 4Gb or Auto to 2Gb/sec since we have legacy 2Gb SAN equipment in the mix.

Power Up the SAN Switches, Power Up the MSA1000 SAN, Power Up the Servers.

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Could anyone please let me know if you see anything missing or absent in my plan that could cause a problem.

My ESX Servers and SAN are as follows:

(3) Proliant DL380-G5 32GB of Memory Each with Two LP952 2Gb Emulex by HP/Compaq HBAs per server.

Thirty VM's in production.

(1) MSA1000 with two almost fully populated MSA30 Units Attached.

Thanks in advance any advise is appreciated.

Peter Sachs

Senior LAN Administrator Wellesley, MA USA

[Lightbulb]

Looks good. Before begiining work you might want to ensure, as best you can, basic functionality of new components. I have seen instances where new equipment deployed in the middle of a change request does not work and if you do not have anything in spares this can be a problem. Unless you are stupendously unlucky the worst you would have to deal with would be degraded load balancing/Failover. Never hurts though to do a quick power up just so you do not have a surprise in the middle of a planed downtime.

[depping]

Looks good. I would however just start 1 esx host... let it boot. check if it sees the SAN and the VMFS volumes correctly. If it does boot the second server etc.

Duncan

VMware Communities User Moderator

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[peterssachs]

Thanks, someone on the HP Communities posted that I might need to watch out for the following:

"As you use Emulex adapters it is a requirement that you use single-initiator zoning (one zone that includes an MSA port and exactly one host port) on the Brocade switches." -Uwe Zessin

I am too much of a SAN newbee to really understand Zoning, I am hoping that it will just work on Sunday Night and by the next weekend I will be wise enough implement zoning in a proper fashon.

I am not against reading manuals, I just think I should get out and get some fresh air on the weekends.. :smileycool:

[depping]

Single iniator zoning is always a best practice in my opinion. it's not specifically an Emulex best practice.

Duncan

VMware Communities User Moderator

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[Lightbulb]

For a quick overview on Brocade Zoning check out this link

http://technotes.twosmallcoins.com/?p=16

[peterssachs]

After racking my brain about this for hours it occured to me that since the MSA Fabric Switches are embedded I should just go into their year 2001 Web Interfaces and see what type of Zoning they have enabled. (hind-sight is 20:20, I know!)

It turns out that under System Information --> Switch Control --> Zoning Configuration, their Zoning was set to off.

While this may not be the best configuration, it has been working strong for over a year with my existing MSA1000 VM-Ware Cluster, so having the new switch set for Default or "No Zoning" should certainly get me by untill have have time to really address reading and understanding the FibreOS Administration Manual.

Thanks alot for the advise guys, I really apprechiate it and will take all your tips into account tomorrow during the upgrade.

-Pete