NAS9000s cluster

[BR794491]

We are moving to 2 clustered NAS9000s to replace our existing NAS8000 NAS head. We have set up the heartbeat connection, as well as connections to the campus network and a virtual IP number by which the NAS will be addressed by clients on the campus network.
In order to replicate what we previously had with the NAS8000 we would like servers (windows and Unix) to mount their filestore on a private (192.168.x.y) Gigabit network. This would help increase performance as a dedicated I/O network.
Is this possible? If so do we again have to use a virtual IP number to address the NAS on the private network?
The private network will not be able to contact the campus Active Directory, is this a problem??
Many thanks in advance
Regards
Jonathan

[Jon Paul · Accepted solution]

Hi Jonathan,

First, there is a lot going on here that I don't have details for so I will try to list when I make an assumption.

To answer your questions:
- Dedicated network for server filestores?
- yes this should work as long as both the server and the NAS system have another network connection to the AD. It should just use the other network to authenticate. Make sure that your routing table is ok so that client requests on the servers or NAS will not try to use the private network to communicate.

Assumption: You are using only one cluster group for all your resources.
- You should use multiple groups to spread the load across both nodes, otherwise you half your potential throughput and the other server is just generating heat.
- Use one cluster group for your server storage with it's own Virtual IP (add a dependency on the Campus network to make sure AD connection is available)
- Leave the default "Cluster Group" alone, it is used for and by the cluster to do admin tasks on the cluster. Using this network name and VIP has resulted in strange performance in the past (especially with win2k clustering)
- If you use multiple Cluster groups and want to reference all filestores from one name, think about using a DFS root

Please let us know if this is not clear. Use your support contacts and/or this forum for any future issues.

Regards,
JP - Jon Paul

[BR794491]

Many thanks for this.
I was able to add the private I/O network's IP as a clustered resource and this works fine.
Many thanks for the suggestions about using multiple resource groups. Is it better to do this using resource groups and/or using multiple LUNs to host the data?