Connecting to EVA4400 from C7000

[The Brit]

I am looking at new configurations for my site and we are thinking of using EVA4400 storage subsystem.

I am currently using Virtual Connect on my enclosures (although this is being reassessed as part of this reconfiguration.). My blades are bl860c's (Itanium) and my OS is OpenVMS.

Although we currently use VC, and are not particularly unhappy with it, leases are approaching expiration, and therefore it is time to reassess our whole approach. So VC could go, if a "better" option offers itself. I am looking into iSCSI on OpenVMS, but I think it is still in its infancy, and therefore would not be considered an option. So;

At the moment I connect from my VC modules, to my EVA's, via an external FC Switch. I am checking out configurations which would allow me to drop the external switch, so I have 3 questions.

1. Is it possible to connect my VC FC modules directly to the EVA embedded SAN switch?, i.e. are the embedded SAN ports NPIV capable?

2. If I get rid of VC and install Brocade SAN switch modules instead, will this remove the need for external SAN switch, and allow direct connection to the EVA4400.

3. If I get rid of the VC and install FC Pass-thru modules, will this remove the need for external SAN switches?

thanks in advance for any comments.

Dave.

[David Claypool]

Well, to some degree it's going to depend on what all is coming off lease and being replaced and what constitutes "better."

What is driving the need to eliminate the SAN switches?

[Johan Guldmyr · Accepted solution]

Hey,

1. The EVA4400 (HSV300-S) that comes with embedded SAN-switch is like a normal brocade-switch. They do support NPIV. The external ports are 8Gbps, but the internal ports to the disk controller are 4Gbps.

2. Yes, for the C7000. Might be good to have the external switches for other systems that want to access the EVA. And then it feels safer to have the EVA connect to the external SAN switch.

3. No, well. Depends on how many blades you have. If you get the EVA4400 with embedded SAN-switch: check how many external ports there is on it. 8 or 10 or something like that per controller.

If you do not get the one with embedded SAN sw you would need to keep the external SAN-switches.

[The Brit]

There is nothing driving us away from FC, we are just lining up our options.

The leases referred to above are on the c7000's and the contents, so although we will probably continue to run the c7000's and the Itanium Blades (OS requirement), we may opt for a different Interconnect configuration, both Ethernet and FC.

As I said above, this is just an investigation of our options.

thanks

Dave.

[cjb_1]

I'm looking at setting up a new solution using a c7000 and a 'small' eva with embedded san (no external san switches) and have got as far as choosing the option discussed in question 1.

I think the options getting rid of VC means the loss of nice to have features such as moving profiles and rapid hardware replacement which we use and take for granted. The price differential didn't seem to be too much of an issue.

Losing the external san switches does present the problem of attaching backup tape devices so am looking at a blade housed option.

Have you found any information regarding any replacement for the eva4400? I noticed the 4400 'starter kits' are listed as retired on HP product bulletin.

[Proliant VMS San Mgrs]

Dave, how many blades do you envision? All 860c, or some x86/64?

For the same rack real estate occupied by a c7000 you could rack in a few 2U rx2800i2's. You might need a pair of fabric switches, but the complexity would be much less than with VC.

I am not a fan of blades if the installation is for one chassis which is half full...

[The Brit]

This is not an installation. I have 5 enclosures in 3 different data centers which are already installed and in use in production/development. I currently run a mixture of Itaniums & proliants, with basically all slots occupied.

I am looking at reconfiguring the Itanium blades into 2 c7000 enclosures (one at each of two data centers), with 5-6 bl860s in each. The idea is to set up the OpenVMS production cluster and Development systems in a self contained configuration such that the window's/Linux/Oracle servers can do their own thing without having to constantly take into account the OpenVMS platform. In particular, the optimal hardware configuration (with respect to positioning Mezz cards and interconnect modules) for Proliants running VMWare is much more stringent than my OpenVMS requirements. So separating the configurations makes sense.

All I am doing right now is familiarizing myself with the various hardware options, to see what will best fit my bill. As it happens, I am a fan of the blade system, and Virtual Connect, but that doesnt mean that I stop re-examining my setup. Things change over time and need to stay in touch.

Dave.

Dave.

[Johan Guldmyr]

You also have the HP Flex modules, in case you haven't looked into them before.

[The Brit]

This thread was not intended to be a discussion on the merits or otherwise, of Virtual Connect. As it happens, I have been running Virtual Connect in my enclosures for over 2 years, without so much as a hiccup. I do not find the technology particularly complex or difficult to administer, in fact I find it quite straight forward. The only significant problem I encountered was when migrating from 1/10G VC Ethernet to Flex10 VC Ethernet, due to the documentation being inaccurate.

Also Note, the advisory you mentioned (which I experienced) had no effect on Server/SAN communication. The "NO COMM" state was between the OA's and the interconnects, and did not affect access to the external network or SAN. (with the one exception that if your configuration required your communication to traverse a stacking link). In my environment, stacking links are used primarily for redundancy, and we therefore did not experience any application or system outages due to this issue. It was more of a nuisance than anything else.

Dave.

[JRNIKKI]

I have an EVA4400 with (2) 8/8 FC Brocade switch would like to connect it to a c7000 blade enclosure with Flex FC 8/20.

The virtual  connect flex 10 module is working fine..I really need help connecting VC FC to EVA 4400 Storage

Help!!!.