Chapter 3

Recommended Configurations

About this chapter

This chapter describes the various types of configurations and provides examples of each configuration with each gFiler platform.

Topics in this chapter

This chapter discussed the following configuration types:

Stand-alone configurations
Cluster configurations
Note
Stand-alone gFilers are the equivalent of non-clustered gFilers.

How to use information in this chapter

Use the following configurations as guidelines for when you connect your gFiler to your storage subsystem. You can also refer to the configurations when you determine desired capacity usage, create LUNs initially, and add LUNs to your gFiler.

Each configuration provides information regarding the following aspects of configuration:

Connectivity overview--Provides an illustration and calls out the number of ports used and the total cable connections needed.
Port-to-port connectivity--Outlines which ports on the gFiler and storage subsystem should be used. The ports designated for use are recommendations based on maintaining redundancy across ports on the gFiler and the storage subsystem. The actual ports named might not be available on your storage subsystem.
Note
The illustrations show configurations in which the storage subsystem can have, at most, 256 LUNs per port or 256 LUNs per host group per port. If the storage subsystem model supports more than 256 LUNs per port or 256 LUNs per host group per port, you can reduce the number of storage subsystem connections.

The maximum number of LUNs supported for a configuration is limited by the maximum number of LUNs that a particular gFiler model supports.

Note
CLx in the port-to-port sections after the illustrations refer to the storage subsystem port name. See the HP XP manuals for information about how ports are named.

How redundant port pairs are shown in illustrations

Redundant paths to the same set of LUNs on the storage subsystem go through two different ports. A pair of redundant connections is represented in an illustration by using the same line type. For example, in the illustration in Direct-attached stand-alone configuration--257 to 336 LUNs, the redundant connections are as follows:

1A to 1A and 2B to 2A (solid black lines)
1B to 1B and 2A to 2B (gray lines)

For illustrations that show switches, although the line types between the gFiler gateways and the switches and the line types between switches and the storage subsystems might be the same line type, they do not represent the same connection.