[geeks] Info on FC-Al configuration...

[Paul Booth]

Hi Lionel,

On 1/3/07, Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> 1x Dell 650F Fiber RAID controller with two controllers, 10x 18 Gig Seagate drives

Rebadged Clariion 5700.  FWIW the Clariion 5600 is the same unit with
only one SP, but there was never a Dell unit of that made available.
Basically, that means there's no reason you can't run the Dell with a
single controller.

Dell only supports Windows NT/2000 on the 650F, all the control
software and failover drivers are Windows only.  I couldn't get the
linux multipathing stuff working for love nor money.

> 3x Dell 630F Fiber drive shelves, each with 10x 18 Gig Seagate drives

Daisy chained to the 650F with HSSDC, though you can plug them direct
into a fibre card and they'd appear as a JBOD array.  You might even
be able to get SCSI multipathing working, though I've not tried that.

> 1x Dell SPS (UPS in a 1U tray for the 650F)
> and (apparently) all the cables to tie it all together

Allows you to have write caching enabled on the array.

> But I have no exp. with any of this - any good pointers? I am getting ready to start reading the Dell manuals, but thought I'd ask here as well...

You'll basically need a QLogic HSSDC fibre card and the software,
though you can get things going through the console it's painful to
say the least.  You can single attach it to Linux, but failover (using
the *old* ATF driver, not PowerPath) will only work on Windows (or if
you can find a copy, there was an EMC version for SPARC Solaris,
though Dell didn't supply this for obvious reasons).  You can plug the
machines with the cards into a fibre hub or a switch that support FCAL
(like a Brocade Silkworm with a QuickLoop license) and create a SAN.
The 650F doesn't support LUN masking though, so you have to do it on
the machines.

I've got one of these in storage, with all the bits, and I had a play
around for quite a while, so if you're missing software I can probably
help you out.  Dell were actually quite helpful when I rang them up,
and supplied the last version of the FlareOS that Dell badged for that
unit, with some other bits and pieces.

Let me know what you need offlist and I'll see what I can find.

Cheers,

Paul.