topic Re: VA7410 how many FC cards in host in Disk Enclosures

VA7410 how many FC cards in host

Eric Firkey — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:04:58 GMT

Do you have to have two fiber channel cards (A6795A PCI 2GB Fibre Channel adapter) in the host (L3000) and have them each plug into a controller? Basically do we have to have two FC cards in the host or can we make it work with one?

Re: VA7410 how many FC cards in host

Torsten. — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:14:30 GMT

Direct connected?
You should have 2 HBAs.

You will get higher availability.

Consider this: Each array controller owns a redundancy group and the LUNs within. If you access a LUN over the "non-owner" you will get less performance.

Re: VA7410 how many FC cards in host

Eric Firkey — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:30:46 GMT

can you do it with one card? I understand that each controller controlls a Redundancy group and half the drives. If you connect only to controller one do you still have access to both redundancy groups?

And can you connect one card to a switch and then connect the switch to both controllers?

Re: VA7410 how many FC cards in host

TTr — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:07:50 GMT

Yes you can do it with one card (HBA) on the server but

either all the array groups must be assigned to the same controller on the 7410.

or try using both redundancy groups but the ones assigned to controller TWO would use the 7410 internal crosover bus to connect to the server via controller ONE. There could be some impact on the array.

If you have a switch, zone the server FC port to both controllers and use both redundancy groups.

You should try and get a second HBA on the server.