Dell PS4000 - Host Configuration Guidelines; Recommendations for Host Connectivity in Redundant Sans

Dell EqualLogic Configuration Guide v11.3
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4.4 Host Configuration Guidelines
4.4.1 Recommendations for Host Connectivity in Redundant SANs
Designing a redundant SAN requires the availability of redundant NICs or HBAs on each server. A
redundant NIC configuration on the server requires at least two NICs installed into separate PCI slots in
the server. Table 18 below shows how to achieve redundant server NIC connection configurations for a
server with three installed NICs.
LOM
NIC
Installed
NIC 1
Installed
NIC 2
NIC Connections
to SAN
X
X
-
-
X
X
X
-
X
Table 18: Redundant Server NIC Configurations
Using the Dell PowerEdge R610 server as an example, you configure redundant connection paths to the
SAN switches as shown in Figure 11 below. The R610 server shown in Figure 11 has one additional dual-
port PCI-E NIC installed. This configuration leaves two unused ports on the LOM controller for
connecting to the server LAN.
An R610 server with two additional dual-port PCI-E NICs installed is shown in Figure 12 below. This
configuration leaves all four ports on the LOM controller available for other connections.
Figure 11 Redundant NIC Connections from Server to SAN using one installed PCI-E NIC and LOM