SAN Requirements

[gavin.mckee]

Hi,

We have a HP pClass Blade System with an MSA 1000 for SAN requirements. The interconnect option we use is RJ45 PatchPanel2 with Fibre Channel pass thru.

On the MSA we have two controllers with 2 MSA 2/8 Switches.

I need to know if I need a SAN switch, and if so what model. Only two of the blades will be connected to the SAN. If I need a SAN Switch do I connect the SAN switch into the MSA 2/8 Switch?

Any help well rated!

Thanks

Gavin

[tblancha]

It's hard to say what your requirements are over an informal communication vehicle like NetPro is. But, in general, I would go and baseline and establish how much data and thruput you are currently using. Then I would also look and try to establish how much growth you are going to need in the future. From your brief description, I like the 9216I switch. It has 14 non-oversubscribed ports plus 2 GIGEthernet ports that can be used for iscsi or FCIP. Then it has a 2nd slot open for whatever blade you want or need for your growth. A 32 port blade for your hosts might work out well. Since it sould like you are an HP customer, I would have one of their sales types come down and look at your SAN. Or you can contact your local Cisco Account mgr or SE.

[colin.mcnamara]

It really depends on your growth projections.

However if this MSA1000 is going to be your only storage array, then the MSA2/8 will be fine.

One thing to keep in mind, is that the MSA1000 is pretty much a SCSI JBOD with Fiber Channel to SCSI converter on it. In other words, it is not going to go very fast at all.

--Colin