Zoning for Disks and Tape

[Chris Horne_1]

We have 2 Brocade 3200 switches linked together, with a Storagetek D173 SAN controller attached to each. We then have an HP MSL5030 LTO hanging off one of the switches and HP DL380 G3s attached to each switch via Emulex 9002 HBAs.

We plan to use HP OmniBack for backing up.

The question I have is around zoning. I have heard bad things about mixing the Tape and Disks in the same zone. Does this problem apply if instead of creating one zone we create a Tape zone and a Disk zone but use some of the ports in both zones?

We basically want to be able to have as many servers as possible able to see the Tape directly but also have resillience for the disks.

[Vladimir Vybiral]

Hello, the answer depends on what topology are You going to use - You need to do zoning when in Arbitrated loop topology, You would not necessarily need zoning in Switched Fabric, further depending on the OSes in Your SAN. However, for the server(s) connecting both disk and tape (backup server and/or DP media agent machines) it is good to have 2 HBAs, one dedicated to disk access and one to tape access (it has been mentioned also earlier in one of the threads here) as depending on the OS and driver sometimes the HBAs get locked for tape commands and You lose Your disks . The "dedication" of HBA to disk or tape is done through zoning. A way off buying two HBAs can be rising SCSI timeouts in the app, OS, FC driver, which can help with eliminating 90% of such errors. Anyway, using multiple zones and putting some of the ports in more than one seems a viable solution. hmmm, I hope I have not put that too complicated, but it is a complicated thing and I would need to have a picture of Your SAN. BR, Vladimir

[Stuart Abramson_2]

I agree with the previous answer. We just did a big installation of new SUN servers, SAN, EMC Connectrix (140Ms), EMC Symmetrix, McData Spherion 4500 and STK L700e tape library. The EMC guys were absolutely firm that the EMC disk and the STK LTO tapes MUST be segregated on seperate HBAs, seperate cables, and seperate port zones of the Connectrix, and zoned so that the tape and disk traffic were kept seperate. All servers connected 4 fibre cables to the Connectrixes (2 for disk and 2 for tape). The Connectrixes connected to the Spherion 4500s to the STK L700e. The Spherion converted the switched fabric traffic to arbitrated loop for the STK library. I have attached a powerpoint picture.

[StuartA46]

All:

Do you think that this is still true?  Do you have to have separate the tape and disk HBAs?  In 2015?

     Stuart

[Sheldon Smith]

Depends on the manufacturers, but the SCSI protocol hasn't changed. You may want to get and study the HP SAN Design Reference Guide http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00403562.pdf
You may be able to use the same host HBA WWNs in multiple zones; one to your disk array (multiple disk arrays, multiple zones), and an additional zone to your tape array.

And you should always have each host in its own zones separate from all other hosts.

Note: While I work for Hewlett Packard Enterprise, all of my comments (whether noted or not), are my own and are not any official representation of the company.
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