MSA1000 set up as NAS and SAN

[Matt B Smith]

Hello:

I have 3x DL380 G3 servers, 1x ML350 NAS server and 1x MSA1000. I want to attach them all to the MSA1000 in this configuration:

1x DL380 server has a 6x Drive RAID Array that I want to put in the MSA1000 in a SAN configuration.

2x DL380 attached to MSA1000 on SAN.

1x ML350 in NAS configuration attached to MSA1000.

All using Microsoft Windows 200x server.

Questions I have are:

1. Can an MSA1000 be configured to do NAS as well as SAN? Links appreciated.

2. Can 6x RAID array from DL380 be put in MSA1000?

3. I need SecurePath for 3x DL380s on SAN side of MSA1000?

Thanks!

/Matt

Posted in SAN forum as well.

[Bostjan Kosi]

Hi,

1. MSA can be either in DAS (direct attached storage) or SAN (Storage area network) configuration. To be able to use MSA as NAS (Network attached storage) you need a server to connect to the network on one side and on the MSA (DAS or SAN) on the other side. Of course MSA can serve different servers at the same time...so acting as a SAN and as a part of a NAS configuration.

2. MSA leverages DtS technology (DAS to SAN) meaning you can take SCSI drives out of your DL380 and put them directly into the MSA and all the data will be acessible...except for booting...If you want servers to boot from MSA you need to install OS already in that configuration. But that I would not recomend any way. Leave 2 disks in a raid 1 configuration within the server and boot from those two drives...

3. If you have MSA with dual controllers and two FC switches than yes you need some sort of multipathing software (SecurePath is excellent choice)but there are others...

BR
B.