Multiple Qlogic HBA in Proliant DL 585

[BoingBoing_1]

Hi,

Anybody using multiple single port HBA's in Proliants, to increase HA?

Is it even an option?

[Uwe Zessin]

Yes, this is the way many people are doing it.

It is absolutely not new. I first set up servers with multiple FC adapters in late 1999 (Not QLogics and not DL585, but what was available those days ;-)

[TTr]

Yes, it is done all the time.

Multiple HBAs though is not enough to give you HA.

You have to have a dual fabric SAN environment (two separately configured fiber switches minimum), and a storage system that supports a"active/active" or active/passive" storage allocation.

Also you would need additional software installed in the proliants to handle the multipathing and HA. The software comes with the storage system in most cases but is some environments you have to buy it extra.

[BoingBoing_1]

Thanks. We are design an Exchange 2007 CCR solution.

We are using 2xEVA8000's with dual paths/fabric for active/passive nodes. The current set-up is a single dual port HBA, which we feel is a SPOF within the server (along side memory, cpu and sys board-but that's what we are clustering for).

We are being told by the storage team that if a HBA dies, the whole mother board will go to, so not to bother, anybody know of a PDF where it highlights this a recommended practice to increase HA?

[TTr]

I would also be concerned with I/O bandwidth in addition to SPOF. What kind of server are you using? I prefer the two single port HBAs than one dual port HBA both for performance and to avoid SPOF. There is a certain speed associated with the PCI slot where the dual port HBA is installed and it may not be able to handle the I/O of both ports.

If the dual HBA dies, that server will not be able to access the storage.