Dell Ax4-5 Manual

							 Dell/EMC AX4-5 Fibre Channel
Storage Arrays With
Microsoft
®Windows Server®
Failover Clusters
Hardware Installation
and Troubleshooting
Guide 
						

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____________________
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January 2010  Rev A01 
						

							Contents3
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
Cluster Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
Cluster Hardware Requirements
 . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
Cluster Nodes
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
Cluster Storage
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   10
Supported Cluster Configurations
. . . . . . . . . . . .   11
Direct-Attached Cluster
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   11
SAN-Attached Cluster
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   12
Other Documents You May Need
 . . . . . . . . . . . .   13
2 Cabling Your Cluster Hardware. . . . . . . .  15
Cabling the Mouse, Keyboard, and Monitor . . . . . .   15
Cabling the Power Supplies
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   15
Cabling Your Cluster for Public and 
Private Networks
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   17
Cabling the Public Network
 . . . . . . . . . . . .   19
Cabling the Private Network
 . . . . . . . . . . . .   19
NIC Teaming
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   20
Cabling the Storage Systems
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   20
Cabling Storage for Your 
Direct-Attached Cluster
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   20
Cabling Storage for Your 
SAN-Attached Cluster
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   25
Cabling a SAN-Attached Cluster to an 
AX4-5F Storage System
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   27 
						

							4Contents
3 Preparing Your Systems
for Clustering
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  35
Cluster Configuration Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . .   35
Installation Overview
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   37
Installing the Fibre Channel HBAs
. . . . . . . . . . . .   38
Installing the Fibre Channel HBA Drivers
. . . . . .   38
Installing EMC PowerPath
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   38
Implementing Zoning on a Fibre Channel 
Switched Fabric
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   39
Using Worldwide Port Name Zoning
. . . . . . . .   39
Installing and Configuring the Shared 
Storage System
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   41
Installing Navisphere Storage System 
Initialization Utility
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   41
Installing the Expansion Pack Using 
Navisphere Express
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   42
Installing Navisphere Server Utility
. . . . . . . . .   43
Registering a Server With a Storage System
. . . .   43
Assigning the Virtual Disks to Cluster Nodes
. . . .   44
Advanced or Optional Storage Features
. . . . . .   44
Installing and Configuring a Failover Cluster
. . . . . .   46 
						

							Contents5
A Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  47
B Cluster Data Form
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  55
C Zoning Configuration Form
 . . . . . . . . . . .  57
Index
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  59 
						

							6Contents 
						

							Introduction7
Introduction
A failover cluster combines specific hardware and software components to 
provide enhanced availability for applications and services that are run on the 
cluster. A failover cluster is designed to reduce the possibility of any single 
point of failure within the system that can cause the clustered applications or 
services to become unavailable. It is recommended that you use redundant 
components like server and storage power supplies, connections between the 
nodes and the storage array(s), connections to client systems or other servers 
in a multi-tier enterprise application architecture in your cluster. 
This document provides information and specific configuration tasks that 
enable you to configure your Microsoft
® Windows Server® failover cluster 
with Dell/EMC AX4-5F (2 Fibre Channel ports per Storage Processor) or 
Dell/EMC AX4-5FX (4 Fibre Channel ports per Storage Processor) storage 
array(s).
 NOTE: Throughout this document, Dell/EMC AX4-5 refers to Dell/EMC AX4-5F and 
Dell/EMC AX4-5FX storage arrays.
 
NOTE: Throughout this document, Windows Server 2008 refers to Windows Server 
2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems.
For more information on deploying your cluster with Windows Server 2003 
operating systems, see the Dell™ Failover Clusters with Microsoft Windows 
Server 2003 Installation and Troubleshooting Guide on the Dell Support 
website at support.dell.com/manuals. For more information on deploying 
your cluster with Windows Server 2008 operating systems, see the Dell 
Failover Clusters with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Installation and 
Troubleshooting Guide on the Dell Support website at 
support.dell.com/manuals. 
For a list of recommended operating systems, hardware components, and 
driver or firmware versions for your Dell Windows Server Failover Cluster, see 
the Dell Cluster Configuration Support Matrices located on the Dell High 
Availability Clustering website at dell.com/ha. 
						

							8Introduction
Cluster Solution
Your cluster implements a minimum of two node to a maximum of either eight 
nodes (for Windows Server 2003) or sixteen nodes (for Windows Server 2008) 
clustering and provides the following features:
 8-Gbps and 4-Gbps Fibre Channel technologies
 High availability of resources to network clients
 Redundant paths to the shared storage 
 Failure recovery for applications and services
 Flexible maintenance capabilities, allowing you to repair, maintain, or 
upgrade a node or storage system without taking the entire cluster offline
Implementing Fibre Channel technology in a cluster provides the following 
advantages:
Flexibility — Fibre Channel allows a distance of up to 10 km between 
switches without degrading the signal.

Availability — Fibre Channel components use redundant connections, 
providing multiple data paths and greater availability for clients. 

Connectivity — Fibre Channel allows more device connections than 
SCSI. Because Fibre Channel devices are hot-swappable, you can add or 
remove devices from the nodes without bringing down the cluster. 
Cluster Hardware Requirements
Your cluster requires the following hardware components:
 Cluster nodes
 Cluster storage  
						

							Introduction9
Cluster Nodes
Table 1-1 lists the hardware requirements for the cluster nodes.
 
 NOTE: For more information about supported systems, HBAs and operating system 
variants, see the Dell Cluster Configuration Support Matrices located on the Dell 
High Availability Clustering website at dell.com/ha. Table 1-1. Cluster Node Requirements
Component Minimum Requirement
Cluster nodes A minimum of two identical Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers are 
required. The maximum number of nodes that is supported 
depends on the variant of the Windows Server operating 
system used in your cluster, and on the physical topology in 
which the storage system and nodes are interconnected.
RAM The variant of the Windows Server operating system that is 
installed on your cluster nodes determines the minimum 
required amount of system RAM. 
HBA ports Two Fibre Channel HBAs per node, unless the server employs 
an integrated or supported dual-port Fibre Channel HBA.
Where possible, place the HBAs on separate PCI buses to 
improve availability and performance. 
NICs (public and 
private networks)At least two NICs: one NIC for the public network and 
another NIC for the private network.
NOTE: It is recommended that the NICs on each public network 
are identical, and that the NICs on each private network are 
identical.
Internal disk 
controllerOne controller connected to at least two internal hard drives 
for each node. Use any supported RAID controller or disk 
controller.
Two hard drives are required for mirroring (RAID 1) and at 
least three are required for disk striping with parity (RAID 5).
NOTE: It is strongly recommended that you use hardware-
based RAID or software-based disk-fault tolerance for the 
internal drives.  
						

							10Introduction
Cluster Storage
Cluster nodes can share access to external storage systems. However, only one 
of the nodes can own any redundant array of independent disks (RAID) 
volume in the external storage system at any time. Microsoft Cluster Services 
(MSCS) controls which node has access to each RAID volume in the shared 
storage system.
Table 1-2 lists supported storage systems and the configuration requirements 
for the cluster nodes and stand-alone systems connected to the storage 
systems. 
The storage systems work together with the following hardware components:
 Disk processor enclosure (DPE)—Configured with storage processors that 
control the RAID arrays in the storage system and provide storage 
functionalities such as snapshots, LUN masking, and remote mirroring. 
 Disk array enclosure (DAE)—Provides additional storage and is attached 
to the disk processor enclosure.
 Standby power supply (SPS)—Provides backup power to protect the 
integrity of the disk processor write cache. The SPS is connected to the 
disk processor enclosure
Table 1-2. Cluster Storage Requirements  
Hardware Components Requirement
Supported storage 
systemsOne to four supported Dell/EMC storage systems. For 
specific storage system requirements see Table 1-3.
Cluster nodes All nodes must be directly attached to a single storage 
system or attached to one or more storage systems 
through a SAN.
Multiple clusters and 
stand-alone systemsCan share one or more supported storage systems using 
optional software that is available for your storage system. 
See Installing and Configuring the Shared Storage 
System on page 41.