SAN redundancy

[cef2lion]

We have two Dell 2950 3.5 ESX servers. They are connected to a Dell E200 SAN switch. The SAN switch is connected an IBM DS4300 SAN. We purchased a second E200 SAN switch to create a redundant path the SAN.

How do you proceed to make the redundant connection? Is it plug and play for the ESX server or is there something you need to configure? What about the hosted VM on the ESX servers? Does the ESX server mask the redundancy for the virtual machines. Should the 2 E200 SAN switches be connected together?

Craig

[christianZ]

Check this /page 62:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_san_cfg.pdf

[Natsidan]

you really would want ot have two seperate fabrics zoned down on to the SP's. I am not to familar with your SAN but the path policy within ESX is really dependent on if the san is active/active or active/passive. A/A you would use Fixed and MFU for A/P.

The VM will reside on the san so they will not care about the path - zoning config that is done on the host SAN level.

[jgalexan]

The image attached is taken right out of the PDF that was previouly posted. I currently use 2 DS4800 and a DS8100. Your SAN admin will set up the zoneing for you on the SAN fabrics as well as in the SAN Controller. Yes, ESX will mask the SAN redundancy. The VMs will only know that there is a path to get to its storage (which looks local to the VM).

You should have 1 HBA port going to each of the SAN switches, then from there the Switches will both be connected to each of the controllers in the SAN (the DS4300 should have 2 controllers, each with its own connection to each of the 2 switches). Redundantcy

There are no extra drivers needed for ESX, that piece is already built in. Make sure the LUNs are created using the VMware LUN tag.

Cheers

[cef2lion]

Thank you all. Very good information.

Craig