Networking with a Purpose (#1) – Let’s Get Physical
Mon, 19 Aug 2024 11:13:51 -0000
|Read Time: 0 minutes
Introduction
There are many questions to answer when purchasing and implementing a new storage system. Why am I buying this? How much capacity do I need? What are the performance requirements? Will the system store just block data, or host file data too? While the answers to these questions lead in multiple directions, the physical connectivity of the appliance must be decided and planned. Within this area, there is much to consider.
In this blog series, Networking with a Purpose, we’ll discuss the many aspects of networking with PowerStore:
1. Networking with a Purpose (#1) – Let’s Get Physical
This blog covers the front-end port options available for PowerStore and discusses the best practices for a highly redundant configuration.
2. Networking with a Purpose (#2) – HA To Save The Day
This blog discusses PowerStore’s High Availability features, and how to utilize them effectively.
3. Networking with a Purpose (#3) – What’s My Purpose?
This blog covers the various purposes that can be assigned to storage networks.
4. Networking with a Purpose (#4) – Final Wrap Up
In the final blog of the series, we’ll wrap up and provide guidance on PowerStore connectivity.
Note: This series of blogs was written specifically for PowerStoreOS 4.0. While certain features can be configured in releases prior to 4.0, some features and concepts require 4.0 to be running on the appliance.
Let’s start at the beginning
When planning connectivity, the choices made for the appliance typically come down to the existing infrastructure, or new environment, being implemented. Depending on the system model, PowerStore supports:
- 100 GbE Optical
A two-port module supporting QSFP optical or active/passive copper connection - 32 Gb Fibre Channel (FC)
A four-port FC module with choice of 32Gb/s or 16Gb/s SFPs for connectivity - 25/10 GbE optical
A four-port IP/iSCSI module supporting 25GbE or 10GbE
This module supports SFP+ optical connections and twinax copper connections
This card comes in two versions, one that can be installed in the four-port card location or as an optional IO module - 10 GbE Base-T copper
A four-port 10 GbE Base-T IP/iSCSI module with copper connections
This card comes in two versions, one that can be installed in the four-port card location or as an optional IO module
With all of these connectivity options, users can implement PowerStore in most environments. Now, let’s dig into model-specific options for the PowerStore family.
PowerStore 500T Connectivity
The PowerStore 500T is the entry model for the PowerStore family. For front-end host connectivity, this model supports two onboard ports, a four-port card, and up to two additional IO modules per node. For the onboard ports, two 10 GbE optical ports are available. The 500T also supports one four-port 25/10 GbE optical card in the four-port card location, on which two ports are available for front-end host connectivity. The remaining two ports on this card are reserved for expansion enclosure connectivity. The 500T also includes two optional IO module expansion slots, each supporting the four-port 32 Gb FC, four-port 25/10 GbE optical, or four-port 10 GbE Base-T copper IO module. The following figure shows the available front-end connectivity options for Node A of the PowerStore 500T. Node B will have the same configuration as Node A for redundancy purposes.
PowerStore 1200T, 3200Q, 3200T, 5200T, and 9200T Connectivity
For the remaining PowerStore appliance models, a single four-port card and two optional IO module slots support front-end connectivity. These models do not have onboard front-end ports like the 500T model. For the four-port card, these appliance models support either the four-port 25/10 GbE optical card or the four-port 10 GbE Base-T card. Regardless of the option selected, all four ports are available for front-end connectivity. For the optional IO modules, each optional slot supports either the two-port 100 GbE optical module, the four-port 32 Gb FC module, the four-port 25/10 GbE optical module, or the four-port 10 GbE Base-T module, as shown below.
Note: More information about PowerStore hardware, connectivity options, and capacity can be found in the PowerStore Gen 2 Specification Sheet.
PowerStore Cabling
With front-end ports, the more the merrier, unlike the donut holes that were placed on my desk while writing this blog (Thanks Steve! Not!). You purchased them, right? Why not use them? For PowerStore, connecting all front-end ports to the network and spreading host and client access across the ports is suggested for best performance and equal usage of system resources. But what does this really mean for you? What ports will be used for what?
For fibre channel (FC) environments, there is not much to decide. In PowerStore, FC is used for host front-end connectivity to block resources and migrations where a fibre channel connection to a supported remote system is required. There is no need to worry about file clients or PowerStore replication, which are both done over ethernet. For host connectivity, cabling each node to a redundant FC network and zoning hosts to multiple ports on each node is suggested. For configuration guidance for migrations, review the Importing External Storage to PowerStore Guide for more information.
For ethernet networks, you do need to consider the port usage. Ethernet can be used for block hosts, file resources, and PowerStore data mobility features such as data migration and replication. With this, a few questions arise. Is the environment one single network where everything mingles together and VLANs help to keep everyone in line? Are there different physical networks for block hosts, file clients, and replication traffic? There is no one size fits all solution for an environment. It depends on what you would like to do. With PowerStore, you can do it all! If you have one physical network or many, PowerStore can be customized based on the requirements. You can even dedicate ports for replication traffic, but more on that later.
So, what is suggested? When talking about best practices, it is recommended to use redundant switch hardware between the PowerStore system and external clients or remote systems. It is also suggested that each host or client have at least two paths to each PowerStore node. The key to a redundant configuration is to avoid a single point of failure in the entire data path, from the host to the PowerStore appliance. This could be for a single large network, or multiple networks using dedicated ports for connectivity. Before cabling up any ports, you also should know that PowerStore has some built-in high availability features you may want to take advantage of.
In the next episode of Networking With a Purpose
While you can rely on a redundant configuration and host-level multi-pathing, features such as Link Aggregation and Fail-Safe Networking help offload some of the failure scenario handling to the storage and network. These features are discussed in the next part of this blog series, Networking with a Purpose (#2) – HA To Save The Day.
Resources
- Exploring PowerStore
- PowerStore InfoHub
- Dell PowerStore: Introduction to the Platform
- Dell PowerStore: Best Practices Guide
- PowerStore Networking Guide
- PowerStore Product Documentation and Videos
Author: Ryan Poulin, Principal Engineering Technologist