Re: 3590 Switched Fiber

3590s and AIX (with the appropriate level of Atape) support multi-path
I/O.  If I remember right, multi-path I/O is not turned on by default.
Turn it on and let AIX worry about fail-over of paths and performance.

Orville L. Lantto
Datatrend Technologies, Inc.  (http://www.datatrend.com)
IBM Premier Business Partner
121 Cheshire Lane, Suite 700
Minnetonka, MN 55305
Email: Orville.Lantto AT datatrend DOT com

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rh <rh_info_store AT YAHOO DOT COM>
Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
04/08/2004 08:46 AM
Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager"

        To:     ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
        cc:
        Subject:        3590 Switched Fiber


Hi ITSM'rs,

I have a new fiber attached 3590 implementation that I
would like advice on. I'm not a SAN architect nor an
AIX admin (two strikes?)so I'd like the opinion of
anyone that has a similiar infrastructure in place.

I will have 16 3590-E1A drives attached to two McData
switches using each of the fiber connectors in each
drive. Each of the McData switches are connected to a
seperate Connectrix director. From the AIX TSM host I
have 3 HBA's going to each of the Connectrix boxes
(total of six).

I'd like to configure for availability and
performance. I'd like to exploit failover capabilities
along with any kind of load balancing I may be able to
obtain.

My dilema is how to configure the drives to AIX. Would
it be best to group drives and distribute them across
the HBA's defining a single primary and redundant
path. Or would it be best to pool all the HBA's and
define primary and alternate paths to each of the
drives on each HBA (16x6 devices)?

I'd appreciate any input from anyone that has a
similiar configuration in place or can lead me to any
information that will assist me.

Many thanks,
Rodney Hroblak
ADP


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