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All Dell Unity All-Flash arrays provide an embedded I/O module (optional on some models) and two optional I/O modules per storage processor (SP). This section provides an overview of the different options available in each of the I/O modules. Recommendation on choosing I/O modules for an Oracle environment where performance and throughput are of interest is also given.
I/O ports used for transferring user data are available on the embedded module or additional I/O modules on each SP.
Array model | Converged Network Adapter (CAN) | Ethernet | SAS |
300, 350F, | Two ports: 8/16 Gb Fibre Channel (FC) 4/8/16 Gb FC 16 Gb FC (single mode) 1/10 Gb IP/iSCSI | Two ports, 10 GbE Base T | Two ports, mini-HD |
480, 480F, | N/A | Optional 4-port mezzanine card:
| Two port 12 Gb/s SAS |
For Oracle environments that require FC front-end connectivity on the Dell Unity 480F, 680F, or 880F models, consider using a filler blank in place of the embedded I/O module. Also consider using one or two optional I/O modules that support FC.
If Oracle dNFS is used, consider using the optional four-port mezzanine card on the Dell Unity 480F, 680F, or 880F models. A four-port mezzanine card can be in both Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) and fail-safe networking (FSN) configurations. LACP is discussed in section Configuring LACP – NAS client, and Configuring LACP—NAS server.
Array model | Fibre Channel I/O module | Ethernet Base-T I/O module | Ethernet/iSCSI optical I/O module | SAS I/O module |
300F, | 4-port 16 Gb/s | 4-port 1 GbE, or 4-port 10 GbE | 4-port 10 GbE, or | N/A |
500F, 550F, | 4-port 16 Gb/s | 4-port 1, or 4-port 10 GbE | 4-port 10 GbE, or | 4-port mini HD (backend) |
380, | 4-port 16 Gb/s | 4-port 10 GbE BaseT RJ45 (autonegotiate to 1 GbE) | 4-port 25 GbE optical for Ethernet and iSCSI block traffic; either 10 Gb or 25 Gb SFPs (no auto negotiation, mixed SFPs ok), or TwinAx (active or passive) | N/A |
480, 480F, | 4-port 16 Gb/s | 4-port 10 GbE BaseT RJ45 (autonegotiate to 1 GbE) | 4-port 25 GbE optical for Ethernet and iSCSI block traffic; either 10 Gb or 25 Gb SFPs (no auto negotiation, mixed SFPs ok), or TwinAx (active or passive) | 4-port 12 Gb SAS backend |
In high-demand Oracle environments where IOPs, latency, or capacity are a concern, consider the option of using a 4-port 12 Gb SAS I/O module. The 4-port module will increase the number of configurable hard drives in the array which can help lower latency and increase IOPS and capacity.
I/O modules must be installed in pairs (one in SPA and one in SPB), are of the same type and reside in the same slots between SPA and SPB.
With Dell Unity 480F, 680F, and 880F models, slot 0 I/O modules have x16 PCIe lanes while slot 1 has x8 PCIe lanes. For this reason, slot 0 should be reserved for environments needing greater bandwidths.
The Ethernet/iSCSI card can be in both Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) and fail-safe networking (FSN) configurations).
Once the Dell Unity array is configured, all I/O modules are persistent and cannot change type.