New P4300 G2 - Multiple Switches for failover

[bendsley]

I have a new P4300 G2 SAN and want to connect both pieces of it to two different switches.  There are two pieces that come with the total SAN and each piece has two NICs in them. 

If I wanted to protect against failover and maximize throughput...what would be the optimal way to set these up?  I've tried looking for a manual or something on the HP site that would explain the better way to do this...but have been unable to find something. 

I have two HP 48 port gigabit switches that this SAN will connect to.

Option 1)  One the first piece of the SAN, both NICs are cabled to the first switch and bonded on the switch.  On the second piece of the SAN, both NICs are cabled to the second switch and bonded on the switch.

Option 2)  On the first piece of the SAN, NIC1 is cabled to the first switch and NIC2 is cabled to the second switch.  On the second piece of the SAN, NIC1 is cabled to the first switch and NIC2 is cabled to the second switch. 

Any ideas or suggestions or something I can read about this?

P.S. This thread has been moevd from Storage Area Networks (SAN) (Small and Medium Business) to HP StoreVirtual Storage / LeftHand. - Hp Forum Moderator

[dlindner]

Option 2 is the way to go, just connect the switches and you're done.  (Using STP on the switches helps.)

Also use multiple NICS to connect your volumes  from your application servers.  Team the NICS and send one connection to each switch like you did with the P4300's.