Storage area network (SAN) configurations that contain
nodes must be configured
correctly.
SAN configuration and zoning rules summary During normal operations in a Fibre Channel environment, systems are defined by supported configuration and zoning rules. If a single failure causes one or more of these rules to be invalidated, the configuration is still supported until the failure is corrected and the configuration is brought back into a normal supported mode.
Zoning details
Ensure that you are familiar with these zoning details. These details explain zoning for external storage system zones and host zones. More details are included in the SAN configuration and zoning rules summary.
Example SAN configurations
Examples of typical ways to configure your system and an associated Fibre Channel network are provided to guide you in setting up your SAN configuration.
Fibre Channel port masking
With Fibre Channel port masking, you control the use of Fibre Channel ports. You can control whether the ports are used to communicate to other nodes within the same local system, and if they are used to communicate to nodes in partnered systems. Fibre Channel port masking does not affect host or storage traffic. It gets applied only to node-to-node communications within a system and replication between systems.
Fibre Channel 10-gigabit Ethernet fabric configuration details The system supports 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) fabric configuration.If any of the configuration rules are invalidated because a component in the fabric failed, the configuration is still supported until the failure can be corrected and configuration is returned to normal operation.
Fibre Channel and FCoE SAN configuration details Apply the following configuration details for Fibre Channel and Fibre Channel Over Ethernet (FC/FCoE Gateway, FCF) switches to ensure that you have a valid configuration.
Node configuration details
Apply these configuration details to nodes to ensure that you have a valid configuration.
SAS configuration details
Apply these system configuration details for serial-attached SCSI (SAS) host connections.
HyperSwap system configuration details You can create an IBMHyperSwap topology system configuration where each control enclosure that is used to access a HyperSwap volume is physically on a different site.HyperSwap topology is supported on Lenovo Storage V5030 and Lenovo Storage V5030F systems.
Quorum disk A quorum disk is an MDisk or a managed drive that contains a reserved area that is used exclusively for system management.
Bitmap space configuration for Copy Services, volume mirroring, or RAID Copy Services features and RAID require that small amounts of volume cache be converted from cache memory into bitmap memory to allow the functions to operate. If you do not have enough bitmap space allocated when you try to use one of the functions, you will not be able to complete the configuration.
Comparison of mirroring methods The information in the following table compares the various methods that you can use to mirror your volumes.