connecting 2 servers using an FC card via iSCSI
 

Hi there,
I have one server acting as a iscsi target running windows storage server r2 sp2 and the other server is running centos as an initiator. They are connected to a switch over a 1Gbit ethernet connection. the target is a Dell NF600 and the server running centos is a Poweredge R900.

We want to move this configuration to a FC based installation using a Dell QLE2462 HBA (this is the hba we can get here).

So, i would like to ask before i make a mistake..... :)

If I purchase an ethernet fiber switch and add a Dell QLE2462 HBA to both servers and connect the servers to this ethernet switch, will I be able to use this configuration as iscsi target/initiator?

will i be able to add a new server (initiator) to this configuration?

or the whole thing is totally impossible?

--
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Erick Perez
Cel +(507) 6675-5083
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connecting 2 servers using an FC card via iSCSI
 

Erick Perez wrote:

> If I purchase an ethernet fiber switch and add a Dell QLE2462 HBA to both
> servers and connect the servers to this ethernet switch, will I be able to
> use this configuration as iscsi target/initiator?

No, the QLE2462 HBA is a fiber channel HBA, not a Fiber ethernet
card. Completely different incompatible protocols.

If you want iSCSI HBAs you'll want to look at the Qlogic QLE4062C
1Gbps iSCSI HBAs.

If you want to use fiber channel you should have a fiber channel
array, using Dell as an example something like the AX4-5F would
work. I've never personally seen/heard of someone using fiber channel
to connect two traditional servers to each other.

nate


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connecting 2 servers using an FC card via iSCSI
 

On Mar 18, 2009, at 6:14 PM, Erick Perez <eaperezh@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi there,
> I have one server acting as a iscsi target running windows storage
> server r2 sp2 and the other server is running centos as an
> initiator. They are connected to a switch over a 1Gbit ethernet
> connection. the target is a Dell NF600 and the server running centos
> is a Poweredge R900.
> We want to move this configuration to a FC based installation using
> a Dell QLE2462 HBA (this is the hba we can get here).
>
> So, i would like to ask before i make a mistake..... :)
>
> If I purchase an ethernet fiber switch and add a Dell QLE2462 HBA to
> both servers and connect the servers to this ethernet switch, will I
> be able to use this configuration as iscsi target/initiator?
> will i be able to add a new server (initiator) to this configuration?
>
> or the whole thing is totally impossible?

FC != Ethernet and IP doesn't run over FC.

So no this won't work.

You could look at setting up the CentOS box as a FC initiator to
connect to the fiber storage and bypass the whole storage server mess.

We got rid of MSSS at my work due to it's unreliable performance, and
the fact that it needed a reboot monthly for security updates which is
a pain when you have a cluster and a bunch of virtualization hosts
running off it. The reboot was like power downing 50% of the network
once a month!

Switched to CentOS as the storage server and didn't look back.

-Ross

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connecting 2 servers using an FC card via iSCSI
 

Nate, Ross. Thanks for the information. I now understand the difference.

Ross: I cant ditch MSSS since it is a government purchase, so I *must* use it until something breaks and budget is assigned and maybe in 2 years we can buy something else. the previous boss purchased this equipment and i guess an HP EVA, Netapp or some other sort of NAS/SAN equipment was better suited for the job...but go figure!.


Nate: The whole idea is to use the MSSServer and connect serveral servers to it. it has 5 available slots so a bunch of cards can be placed there.

I think (after reading your comments) that i can install 2 dual port 10gb netcards in the MSSS, configure it for jumbo frames (9k) and then put 10gb netcards on the servers that will connect to this MSSS and also enable 9k frames. All this of course, connected to a good 10gb switch with a good backplane. Im currently using 1Gb so switching to fiber at 1Gb will not provide a lot of gain.


using IOMeter we saw that we will not incurr in IOWait due to slow hard disks.

we just cant trash the MSSS....sorry Ross.


------------------------------------------------------------
Erick Perez

Cel +(507) 6675-5083
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