Dell PowerVault MD3000i Configuration Manual

Also see for PowerVault MD3000i: Getting started Tuning guide System installation guide User guide Hardware owner's manual

Contents

Dell PowerVault MD3000i Configuration Manual Manual pdf 3 page image

Dell Inc Page 31. IntroductionThe Dell™ PowerVault™ MD3000i storage solution consists of a standard or high availabilityconfiguration. The standard model has a single controller with two 1GbE ports. It can be deployedto support up to 16 hosts non-redundantly. The high availability model has dual controllers withtwo 1GbE ports per controller for a total of four 1GbE ports. The dual controller option canconnect up to 16 fully redundant hosts. This document provides instructions to setup theMD3000i iSCSI storage solution for usage with VMware® ESX Server™ software.The Dell PowerVault MD3000i iSCSI storage array contains four Ethernet ports through which theVD can be accessed affording both redundancy and availability of data. Provisioning of storageon servers in a VM environment is a multiple step process starting with definition of the servernames for host access. The iSCSI connection is then established from the storage subsystem,and after detection and configuration is established as a two way link with the associated ESXserver(s), completing the iSCSI communication subsystem. The final step allocates the detectedstorage to the individual virtual machines (VM’s), where all or part of the configured storage canbe assigned to individual VM’s.2. Architectural SetupThe following figure illustrates a typical high availability setup for using the MD3000i in an ESXServer farm. As a best practice, Dell recommends using a separate Gigabit Ethernet networkswitch to handle iSCSI storage traffic. Two servers are connected to two switches. Each switchhas a path to the MD3000i via the two dual port controllers. In this base HA configuration, theservers, switches, and MD3000i ports share the same subnet. The NIC ports serving iSCSItraffic on the ESX servers are teamed.Figure 1: MD3000i High Availability ConfigurationLANESX Server 1MD3000iESX Server 2MD1000MD1000Ethernet SwitchesLANESX Server 1MD3000iESX Server 2MD1000MD1000Ethernet SwitchesLANESX Server 1MD3000iESX Server 2MD1000MD1000Ethernet SwitchesLANESX Server 1MD3000iESX Server 2MD1000MD1000Ethernet Switches