HA: A3500 vs. FC/AL

[Steve Bulmer]

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The only supported way to have 3 Sun hosts connected
to 2 Sun storage arrays is to use Sun A5200 technology and
direct connect the computers to the arrays WITHOUT hubs.
This is the only way Sun will support more than 2 servers connected
to fibre channel disks. Their 3 and 4 node Sun clusters must be con-
figured this way.

You *might* consider using the fast write cache controllers for the
Suns (they are SBUS cards) if you go to the A5200 solution but be
aware that this is not a good idea for failover or Oracle Parallel Svr
as data can be lost/corrupted in cases of host failure.

As for the need for cache, it helps most in small I/O, random, mostly write
intensive applications and less as you move toward larger, sequential read
intensive applications.

Steve

Seth Rothenberg wrote:

> SSA Managers, Help !
> I have spent the past month with my Sun Sales rep
> designing an HA system using two Enterprise 4500's and
> one A3500, 2x2 "Lite+" configuration.  Now, my boss says
> we need a third host.   So, I asked about the A3500FC.
> My Sales/Tech said the 3500FC control module only has
> one FC (is that per controller?), and therefore, it is not a "loop",
> but really a "hub".  The Sales/Tech did not know if we can
> install 3 hosts and 2 controllers using 2 hubs.
>
> IF A3500 does not support 3 hosts, another idea is to just
> get two A5200's, which really can do a loop.
> However, we give up the Controller Module.
> We need to evaluate whether the Read/Write Cache in the
> controller can be sacrificed.  My impression is yes.  I suspect
> my boss won't agree.
>
> The A5200's also have hubs.  I would be interested in
> whether anyone has one of these configurations.
>
> Thanks
> Seth

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