Guys,
I posted this on the Data Center Networking forum but got no reply.... perhaps this is a better forum for the question....
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We are in the process of deploying a SAN environment (EMC Symmetrix) at two data centres and linking the two sites using ONS15540's (DWDM) for Synchronous replication (EMC's SRDF).
We are now wanting to design a solution using EMC GeoSpan and Microsoft Clusters Services for supporting a geographically disperse SQL Server 2000 cluster.
The biggest design issue is the requirement for all nodes in a Microsoft Cluster to be on the same VLAN / Layer 2 network. In the past we have always focused on running independant subnets at the two sites, and all inter-data center communication was down by routing at Layer-3.
Our network support company is not prepared to implement a single VLAN across the two data centers as they are concerned with the risks of spanning tree outages etc bringing down both sites!
Can someone assist in identifying the risks, and ways to mitigate these risks, in running a single VLAN across two sites using DWDM (GigE) as the transport mechanism?
I am also extremely keen to talk to anyone who has actually done GeoClustering... specifically with Microsoft SQL Server.
