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4 Sun StorEdge 3000 Family Best Practices Manual • October 2003
In a point-to-point configuration, only one ID can be assigned to each host channel.
If more than one ID is assigned, the point-to-point protocol rules are violated. Any
host channel with more than one ID will not be able to log in to an FC switch in
fabric mode. This “one-ID-per-channel” requirement is true in both single-controller
and dual- controller configurations. Thus, in dual-controller configurations, either
the primary or the secondary controller can have an ID assigned, but not both. This
yields:
(4 host channels) X (1 ID per channel) X (32 LUNs per ID) = 128 maximum
addressable LUNs in a fabric point-to-point environment. If dual paths are
desired for each logical device, a maximum of 64 dual-pathed LUNs are available.
In an FC-AL configuration, multiple IDs can be assigned to any given host channel.
Although it is possible to add more, it is preferable that no more than four IDs be
assigned to a controller on a given host channel. Thus no more that eight IDs should
be assigned to any host channel if both primary and secondary controllers each have
four IDs. This yields (4 host channels) X (8 IDs per channel) X (32 LUNs per ID) =
1024 maximum addressable LUNs in a FC-AL environment. However, configuring
the maximum number of LUNs increases overhead and can have a negative impact
on performance.
The FC-AL protocol should be selected for environments needing more than 128
LUNs, or where a switched fabric network is not available.
Supported RAID Levels
There are several RAID level choices: RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 1+0 (10), 3+0 (30), and 5+0 (50).
RAID levels 1, 3, and 5 are the most commonly used. The Sun StorEdge 3510 FC
array supports the use of both global and local spare drives in the unlikely event of
disk failure. It is good practice to use spare drives when configuring RAID devices.
Refer to the Sun StorEdge 3000 Family RAID Firmware 3.27 User’s Guide, Sun StorEdge
3510 FC Array (P/N 816-7934) for detailed information on how RAID levels and
spare drives are implemented.
Logical Drives
A logical drive (LD) is a group of physical drives configured with a RAID level. Each
LD can be configured for a different RAID level.
The Sun StorEdge 3510 FC array supports a maximum of eight LDs. A LD can be
managed by either the primary or secondary controller. The best practice for creating
LDs is to split them evenly across the primary and secondary controllers. The most
efficient maximum configuration would have four LDs assigned to each controller.