media for the heartbeat connection in SG

[Hanry Zhou]

I know that I can use crossover cable for heartbeat communications between two nodes in SG, assuming it'd be copper LAN card, and RJ 45 port.

Now, can I use Fibre Channel Gigbit card, and bibre cable for the same purpose of the heartbeat communication?

Please advice,

[Geoff Wild]

Yes - you can use fibre gig for heartbeat.

Rgds...Geoff

[Hanry Zhou]

Geoff,

To be specific, I have A6847 Fibre Gig lan card, I'm going to use Fibre cable to directly connect these two nodes .Is this right?

[Jeff Schussele · Accepted solution]

Hi Hanry,

Seems like somewhat of a waste to use Gig-E for heartbeats, but you can certainly do it.
Just remember to hook the Tx of one to the Rx of the other if you're directly connecting them.

Rgds,
Jeff

[Hanry Zhou]

I thought you only have one way to plug the cable in the port, otherwise, it won't fit?

[Jeff Schussele]

No - both sides of the connector are identical.
It may be that you have a "caddy" that forces the left/right orientation, but it can be removed & the fibres oriented as you wish.
But I also "think" that the Gig-E fibre spec allows for auto-sync anyway, so it may not make a difference.

Rgds,
Jeff

[Geoff Wild]

Just thought I'd mention - that "cross over" cables between nodes isn't really supported by HP.

It is best to plug into a switch (well - for rendundacy - 2 switches).

Rgds...Geoff

[Sยภเl Kย๓คг]

Hi,

I will advised you to have a pair of redundant heartbeat communication. It can be a Ethernet or FC, depends how would you manage with the cost. FC is always better and reliable. If u have multi cluster environment go with redundant switches instead of cross cable connectivity.

Regards,
Sunil

[Kent Ostby]

Note that starting in A.11.16, Fibre Channel is not supported as a data or heartbeat lan:

http://docs.hp.com/en/B3936-90079/ch02s02.html

[Fred.Wu]

Sure , giga-bit NIC do work for heartbeat, but I just think it's a waste, since signal transfered on heartbeat network is quite a small package, 10/100M is enough for it.