Cisco MDS Vsan for EVA8100 and EMC Clariion (Same or Seperate)

vivekdey1 · ‎01-18-2009

We have EMC Clariion Frame CX600,CX700 and Cisco MDS Fabric with 2 VSANS currently.

We have just procured EVA8100 and wanted to find out, do we create 2 additional VSANS to support it or add EVA8100 in the existing VSANS.

IVR is not enabled on Cisco MDS.

Also we'll be phasing out the EMC frames and want to migrate data from Clariion LUNS , so debating to put EVA8100 in same VSANS, so data can be migrated over same VSANS.

Also heard that earlier if EMC Clariion was brought online before EVA frame then CommandView would not find EVA, so EVA needs to be booted first (May have been fixed).

Thanks

inch · ‎01-18-2009

G'day,

You do not need to create new vsan's when adding new devices to a fabric. You will however need to change the zoning configuration to allow hosts to see the newly attached storage array.

VSAN's are a way of segregating traffic within a single physical fabric. One good method of using them is to segregate development from production traffic.

For further info on VSAN's see "http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns340/ns394/ns259/ns261/networking_solutions_white_paper09186a0080114c21.shtml"

Cheers

stephen2615 · ‎01-23-2009

I have been known to create VSAN's for individual production systems traffic. Eg, an absolute mission critical solution that is basically seperate itself and has no intereaction with anything else on the SAN could be put in a VSAN and kept seperate from other systems. I have had the unfortunate issue with some LSI based arrays that start spitting out errors for no apparent reason. Our VTL and the server it attaches too also sometimes spit out errors and therefore, I prefer to keep backup traffic completely seperate to other traffic.

Basically, do what you feel comfortable with. In reality, if you have no need for VSAN's, why buy a MDS?

vivekdey1 · ‎01-24-2009

We do have 6 Vsan's

2 for General Purpose

2 for Backup

2 for Virtual environment.

We are planning to use existing vsan's, due to migration from older frames are being planned and will help if its frames are in same vsan.