HA: A3500 vs. FC/AL

[Beck, Joe]

Was this potential for lost/corrupted data just a forewarning or did you
experience problems?
Very curious as we are suppossed to start running performance tests in our
environment (large OPS, read intensive app)--trying to decide whether it
behooves us to look into fast write cache for our A5000's & A5200's.
Also, I was told that even w/out a fast write cache controllers there was a
way to turn on fast write cache on the Array itself.
Do you know if this is true? or is this capability availability at both
levels?
I recently received a document sun storedge fast write cache best practices,
so i guess that's a good starting point.
one thing i noticed is a fwcadm command which must be part of a package that
comes with the controller?
Any feedback on this topic is appreciated

______________________________________________________
Joe Beck	Unix Administrator/Tax Redesign Project
jbeck@dol.state.nj.us
voice:  (609)292-5785

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. -Aristotle

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Steve Bulmer [SMTP:bulmer@theALLIEDgroup.com]
> Sent:	Monday, January 10, 2000 11:12 AM
> To:	Seth Rothenberg
> Cc:	ssa-managers@Eng.Auburn.EDU
> Subject:	Re: HA: A3500 vs. FC/AL
> 
> 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
>  << File: bulmer.vcf >>