Sun Microsystems StorEdge 3000 Series, Best Practices Manual

Page: 39 / 86

Chapter 3 Planning Your Storage Architecture 23
environment. For environments with different server configurations, choose the
solution that best matches the servers whose applications are mission-critical or most
important.
General Configuration Considerations
The entry-level configuration for a Sun StorEdge 3510 FC array or Sun StorEdge 3511
SATA array uses only one RAID controller. If this configuration is used, two single-
controller arrays should use host-based mirroring to ensure high reliability,
availability, and serviceability.
Note –
Please refer to product documentation for VERITAS Volume Manager or an
equivalent host mirroring application to set up the optimum configuration with
single-controller arrays.
Use dual-controller arrays to avoid a single point of failure. A dual-controller FC
array features a default active-to-active controller configuration. This configuration
improved application availability because, in the unlikely event of a controller
failure, the array automatically fails over to a second controller, resulting in no
interruption of data flow. Single controller arrays are provided for small
configurations requiring fast, scratch disk, as in EDA environments.
Sun StorEdge 3510 FC arrays and Sun StorEdge 3511 SATA arrays are extremely
flexible, but when designing storage solutions remember to keep them as simple as
possible. Keep the following suggestions in mind when designing the configuration
of a Fibre Channel storage system:
■
To ensure power redundancy, connect the two power modules to two separate
circuits, such as one commercial circuit and one UPS.
■
In a single-controller configuration, disable the Write-Back Cache feature to avoid
the possibility of data corruption in the event of a controller failure. This will have
a negative effect on performance. To avoid either issue, use dual controllers. You
can also use the RAID firmware to create event triggers that temporarily disable
the Write-Back Cache feature in the event of hardware failures or out-of-spec
environmental conditions.
■
Prior to creating logical drives and mapping them to host channels, set the
appropriate cache optimization, Fibre Channel protocol, and controller channel
IDs. Reset the controller after these configuration parameters have been set.
■
For best performance and RAS, create logical drives across expansion units.
■
To avoid disruptions to other hosts sharing the same array, do not share a logical
drive among multiple hosts.
■
Use either local or global spare drives when creating logical drives. Any free drive
can be designated as a spare and more than one drive can be used as a spare.