SINGLE 9513 with A&B 9216 best practice....

[jasontheis]

We have a couple 9216's (A&B side - VSAN numbers identical) and have reached our port count limit. We purchased one 9513 with two 48 port FC modules and one X9304-18k4 line rate card (18FC/4IP). The goal is to make the single 9513 our principle switch ISL'ed to the 9216's.

Is having one 9513 a good decision? Our thoughts were that it has so much redundancy built in and the performance is far beyond what we need we could just use one. I have never had anything but an A&B side of the fabric so wrapping my head around this and trying to keep it within best practice is proving difficult.

The 9216A&B VSANS numbers are identical. When we ISL the zones will merge thereby collapsing the A&B sides together. I really don't want to do that (would essentially become a meshed fabric right). I am thinking that I need to rename the VSAN's on the B side to not match A. Maybe make the even numbered VSAN the A side and the odd numbered VSAN the B side. That way I can keep the ISL's independent from each other and prevent the zones from collapsing into each other.

Also keep in mind that we may (eventually) purchase another 9513 and just move one of the FC48 modules over to separate the A&B side again at a later date. I want to keep this as flexible as possible in case that does happen.

Thoughts - comments - suggestions all welcome! Just please be nice. I am learning....

[Michael Brown]

I think you are right on. The single 9513 can not have duplicate VSANs for the A and B 9216s. The odd/even idea makes the most sense. This way you can leverage the 9513 redundancy. You can match the same VSANs that exist in the A fabric, and only permit those VSANs across the ISLs to the A 9216. You will have to renumber the VSANs on the B 9216 and then match them on the 9513 and again, only permit those VSANs on the ISLs to the B 9216.

Things to keep in mind if you re-number the VSANs on the B 9216. If you match the domain numbers used on the corresponding A 9216 VSANs, and make them static, even if someone cross connects a cable the VSANs will not merge since there is domain confict. If you change the domain from the current one in use, hosts like AIX and HP-UX will get a new FCID. You may have to rescan the host to resolve the lun bindings.

If you have AIX and HP-UX, you may want to ensure that the target devices they use, get the same FCID after the VSAN renumber to avoid having to perform the rescan. (this may prevent matching the same domains used on the A 9216).

Hope this helps,

Mike