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new storage Connecting to UCS

jassimalenezi
Level 1
Level 1

Hello,

 

Currently we’ve 3X UCS 5108 chases configured in HA with full blades mix (B200 M2, B230 M1) using two 6296 UCS Fabric interconnect connected to two Cisco MDS 9148 SAN Switch (VSAN #2) with one EMC VNX2 storage. (diagram attached is similar to ours).


In this setup all blades boot from the SAN. (ESXI, Hyber-V, XenServer) only 5 blades are free
Now we bring new storage with FC and I already connected to the MDS and here my point and how best to go about doing this
shall i create new VSAN or connect it with same VSAN(#2) of EMC VNX2 Storage.
 
How can I configure the UCS to able to connect to the new storage and use the SAN boot for the remaining 5 Blades.
also another idea to move & backup / snapshot of some existing servers to the new storage.
need small details.

 


thanks

3 Replies 3

Kirk J
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Greetings.

If you have additional FC ports available between the FI and MDS, you are probably better off creating a 2nd vsan, and assigning new specific FC uplinks the new vsan.

The FIs can do vsan trunking, so you can still utilize the same ports (assuming utilization will not be too high with added FC traffic).

Hopefully you are using FC port-channels between the FIs and MDS for better load balancing and redundancy.

You'll need to update your MDS zoning for the new vsans to allow for new storage processor targets  and blade initiators you are considering.

Thanks,

Kirk...

thank you for your replay

 

Currently I have three scenarios

 

 

1. assuming not have enough ports in between FI & MDS for uplink. since we use 6ports on FC1 and 6ports FC2 Is there a risk to use the same current uplink ports. and the current utilization is not much bandwidth. but in this case I will lose to add new vsan ?

 

2. In fact there is some free ports on (FI & MDS).

but I'm not sure why I'm not able to reconfigure the remain ports as FC "Uplink Link Port" on FI (pic attach)  Is there a need to update the license? for FI or I've to change the Expansion Module as FC.

or that depends on the type of SFP are connected.

 

3. another solution / I've one more FI as extra we keep it in the store as a backup can I install it with this environment. to work as subordinate.

What model of FIs are you using?

 

Enabling vsan trunking is a common scenario we see customers frequently use, and if bandwidth is not a major issue, is something you can consider.

For issues like slow drain, having separate link sets for separate vsans can help isolate issues.

 

Question #2, I will research once you confirm which FI model and module you have.

 

Do you have your current UCSM with FIs as a pair already?  Is the other FI you refer to a 3rd FI?  FI cluster only supports 2 in HA.

 

Thanks,

Kirk...

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