Storage subsystem considerations

This topic describes the storage subsystems that are supported by the SAN File System.

SAN File System supports heterogeneous, simultaneously-connected Fibre Channel storage subsystems on clients with host bus adapter (HBA) sharing, subject to the limitations of the client platform, drivers, and storage vendors.

SAN File System supports an unlimited number of LUNs for user data storage. However, the amount of user data storage that you can have in your environment is determined by the amount of storage that is supported by the storage subsystems and the client operating systems.

For more information about supported storage subsystems, refer to the following Web site:

www.ibm.com/storage/support/sanfs

System storage pool

Currently, SAN File System supports only these storage subsystems for use in the system storage pool:
  • The IBM® TotalStorage® Enterprise Storage Server® (ESS), models 2105-F20 and 2105-800
  • The IBM TotalStorage SAN Volume Controller, model 2145 with storage subsystems that are supported by SAN Volume Controller
  • IBM TotalStorage DS4300 Turbo (IBM TotalStorage FAStT600T), DS4400 (FAStT700), and DS4500 (FAStT900) running firmware version 8.4 on the storage device and software version 8.41 on the client platforms

Ensure that the IDs for any LUNs that are used by the system storage pool starts with 0. Refer to your storage documentation for information about assigning LUN IDs.

Note: If you are using a DS4000 Series storage subsystem, all DS4000 LUNs that are used in the system storage pool must be in a separate partition from the LUNs that are used by the user storage pools.
Refer to the IBM TotalStorage Web site for the supported code levels of these storage subsystems.

www.ibm.com/storage/support

User storage pool

For user storage pools, SAN File System is designed to work with FCP-compliant storage subsystems that meet the following qualifications:
  • Conforms to SCSI standards for device driver interface, including unique device identification.
  • Supports the required device drivers and operating-system stack.
  • Are SAN-attached to the client machines.
Tip: Consider any restrictions imposed by the storage subsystem, host bus adapter (HBA) cards, device drivers, and client platforms that are used in your SAN File System environment to ensure that they are all compatible.

DS4000 LUNs assigned to user storage pools can be shared by multiple SAN File System clients as long as the clients are aware of one operating system type. LUNs within a DS4000 partition can only be used by one operating system. If you use DS4000 firmware lower than version 8.41, you cannot have more than 32 LUNs per partition.

Storage subsystems other than ESS or SAN Volume Controller may require additional, manual configuration to be detected and used by SAN File System.

Refer to the platform support documentation for a list of storage subsystems that are supported for each client platform in your environment.

Parent topic: Validating the existing SAN infrastructure

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IBM TotalStorage SAN File System v2.2