Standard cluster with sites --- or multi-site with single VIP?

[Peter Andreasson]

Hi all.

I have a couple of customers who are running P4000´s in a standard cluster, two node + fom configuration with SAN/iQ 9.0. The servers are clustered Win2008R2 Hyper-V hosts running the v9 DSM. All volumes are Network RAID 10.

Now we are talking about adding two more nodes and splitting the new 4-way cluster into two separate sites with a gigabit link in between.

With the release of SAN/iQ 9, there´s some talk about not needing to setup a dual-VIP multi-site solution to have the servers only access site-local storage nodes, since you can now assign servers to sites as well.

Can I simply: create sites, assign the storage nodes and Hyper-V hosts to their sites (putting the first and third storage node in the same site..) and be done with it? I would assume that the VIP holder will still have to be contacted first for each session, and then the DSM will handle the rest, accessing only site-local nodes. ..?

Or do I have to go through the “convert standard cluster to multi-site cluster” wizard and using two VIP´s to accomplish this?

With SAN/iQ 9.0, what is really the difference between a standard cluster with sites, and a multi-site cluster with a single VIP?

I have looked through all the P4000 documentation I could find + googled the web and these forums, but I can´t seem to find a clear answer on this.

Pleeeease, enlighten me…