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px12 Advanced Network Configuration Guide
INTRODUCTION
The Lenovo
®
EMC
®
px12 network storage array offers versatile storage provisioning, advanced
protocol capabilities, expandability, and affordability in an easy-to-use product ideal for small
businesses, workgroups, and departments. The px12 provides quad gigabit Ethernet connections,
direct- or network-attached storage, easy file sharing, iSCSI block access, multiple RAID
configurations for optimized data protection, and Storage Pools for application flexibility and
expandability to match your budget. Business users will appreciate the robust data protection
features, such as UPS support; print serving; folder quotas; rsync device-to-device replication; and
user replaceable hot-swap fans, power supplies, and drives for business continuity and disaster
recovery. The easy-to-use interface and Active Directory support provide no-hassle management.
The px12 supports PC, Mac
®
, Linux
®
and Unix clients and is VMware
®
certified for NFS and iSCSI
and Microsoft windows Server 2008 r2 (Hyper-V) certified for iSCSI.
A Virtual LAN (VLAN) is a group of hosts with a common set of requirements that communicate as if
they were attached to the same broadcast domain regardless of their physical location. A VLAN has
the same attributes as a physical LAN, but does not require the hosts to be located on the same
network switch. Like routers in LAN configurations, VLANs are created to provide segmentation
services to address issues such as scalability, security, and network management.
NIC bonding (also known as NIC teaming, link aggregation, trunking, among others) is a computer
networking technology that uses multiple network cables and ports in parallel to increase the link
speed beyond the limits of any one single cable or port, and to increase the network redundancy for
higher availability.
Standard Ethernet frames contain 1500 bytes of payload, or maximum transmission unit (MTU).
Jumbo Frames can normally carry up to 9000 bytes of MTU, although variations exist. By increasing
the frame size, the same amount of data can be transferred in fewer frames, therefore reducing
hardware and software processing overhead and improving network efficiency.
This white paper discusses the advanced network capabilities available on the px12, including
VLAN, NIC bonding, and Jumbo Frame, and how to configure them to fully take advantage of these
enterprise-class technologies. The paper includes detailed instructions and procedures to help
users plan and configure the px12 network settings and the corresponding network infrastructure.
TERMINOLOGY
LAN
:
Local Area Network.
NIC
: Network Interface Card (a.k.a. Network Adapter)
Virtual NIC
: Virtual network interface card. In this paper, it refers to a VLAN or bonded NIC device.
NAS
: Network Attached Storage. The name given to dedicated data storage technology that can be
connected directly to a computer network to provide centralized data access and storage to
heterogeneous network clients.
