March 2013 Dell EqualLogic Configuration Guide v14.1 7-60
7 EqualLogic SAN design
An EqualLogic iSCSI SAN can be operated in any network that supports the industry standards and IP
subnet design guidelines described in this section. Because of this flexibility, there are many network
design and configuration choices that can affect SAN performance. The following sections provide
details related to network design and configuration to support the use of an EqualLogic SAN.
Note: With the addition of FS Series NAS functionality, the EqualLogic product family now
provides an iSCSI based unified file and block storage platform. An EqualLogic SAN can
now be used to provide block level access (direct iSCSI access to PS Series arrays) or file
system level access (via the FS Series appliance) using NFS or CIFS protocols and the Dell
FluidFS scale-out file system.
Unless otherwise stated, recommendations in this document are applicable to both file and block
environments.
7.1 General requirements
7.1.1 Implementation of standards
EqualLogic SANs are based on industry standards. The following standards are required to support all
host to target communications and member to member communications in an EqualLogic SAN:
• IETF Standards
o IETF RFC1122 “Requirements for Internet Hosts – Communications Layers”
o IETF RFC1123 “Requirements for Internet Hosts – Application and Support”
o IETF RFC3270 “Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI)”
• IEEE Standards
o 802.1
o 802.3
iSNS support
An Internet Storage Name Service
1
(iSNS) server can support discovery, management and
configuration of group members by dynamically updating information about the iSCSI target names
for group volumes. Once the IP address of an iSNS server is entered in an iSCSI initiator’s configuration
utility, the setting is persistent across initiator sessions. A PS Series group can be configured to register
with up to three iSNS servers.
Note: Starting with Firmware V4.1.4, volume and snapshot identifiers are no longer
automatically published to iSNS servers. This applies to new volumes and snapshots as
well as volumes and snapshots that existed before the group was upgraded to V4.1.4.
1
The Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS) specification: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4171
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