StorEdge A5100 and Blade1000
Hi guys
I have a Sun Blade1000 and loads of Sun FC-AL disks so I decided to get me a StorEdge. I've located a cheap, working A5100 with a couple of HDDs already in it and I'm pretty sure I can fill it.
I've read around here and from what I've read I assume I need a PCI or PCI-X card for the Blade to connect the A5100 but I don't know what else. My experience of FC is limited to the Blade so I've never touched anything outside the two internal drives. I found this:
<a href="http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/Systems/SunBlade1000/components.html #FibreChannel" target="_blank"> http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/Systems/SunBlade1000/co mponents.html#FibreChannel</a>
And all I'm seeing is a confusing list of cards, none of which are standing out and saying "buy me, buy me!". Beyond the PCI(-X) card, I know I'm gonna need cabling too, but again I'm heading into uncharted territory. Since I don't have a service contract with Sun I can't see much that's any use to me in SunSolve so I was hoping someone could just tell me or give me a URL to whatever I need to buy. Oh, if you do, I'm in the UK so I'd appreciate a UK supplier if possible.
I'm sure this is no work at all for you guys so I'm going to head off to work now and hope that I can win the A5100 on eBay when I get home. Thanks for your time already!
[1404 byte] By [
Antnee] at [2007-11-25 23:00:14]
# 1
If you compare the following list of HBA's for the A5100 to the list in the URL that you gave you should find that 1 or 2 or the cards match. It will thus be either of these that you will need.
<a href="http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/Systems/A5100/components.html#FibreC hannel" target="_blank"> http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/Systems/A5100/component s.html#FibreChannel</a>
And the same is for cables.
<a href="http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/Systems/A5100/components.html#Cables " target="_blank"> http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/Systems/A5100/component s.html#Cables</a>
# 2
I am running Blade 1000 machines as well, I upgrade to EMC Clariion storage recently, but prior to that I was using Enterprise Network Array ( A5000 ) similar to the A5100. Many of the Fibre Channel cards mentioned in the handbook support a higher transfer speed than the A5100 interface board supports, so you unless you plan to upgrade to current servers and higher speed storage you should ignore these items. The cards I was using were PCI single 375-3019 and PCI dual 375-3030 with 537-1004 to attach to the Hubs and interface boards. These items can still be ordered through the catalogue:
<a href="http://uk.sun.com/catalog/?n-state=http:& #38;#47;/catalog.sun.com/index.xml?site%3dUNITEDKGB~~~G!05104C78A9BC!JiI RVvSREpgpGw16sJsx~standard~ws-nocache" target="_blank"> http://uk.sun.com/catalog/?n-state=http://catalog.sun.com/in dex.xml?site%3dUNITEDKGB~~~G!05104C78A9BC!JiIRVvSREpgpGw16sJ sx~standard~ws-nocache</a>
# 3
Hubs and interface boards? Now this is where it's getting confusing for me. I'm assuming from this that I can't just buy this A5100 and a PCI card, get the necessary cables and run it then? I don't want to share it over other servers as I've seen some people do.
When you say you were using a PCI single and PCI dual, I assume you didn't need them both at once? What do you need for an A5100? Is a single OK? I'm so far out of my field here!
# 4
Ok, the hubs I referred to are for connecting multiple hosts and storage arrays together ( bit like a LAN ), so if you are just connecting your Blade directly to the array you won't need to worry about hubs or switches. The interface board is a part of the array, it controlls Fibre Channel traffic to and from the Backplanes of the array. It has a point on it ( GBIC: Gigabit Interface Converter ) that you attach the fiber optic cable to, at the other end, the PCI card ( HBA ) has a point on it ( GBIC: Gigabit Interface Converter ) that you attach the other end of the cable to: and that will give you DAS ( Direct Attached Storage ). I would ignore my statement about single and dual cards ( HBA ), this is just a reference to the number of points ( GBIC: Gigabit Interface Converter ) on each PCI card ( HBA ), single meaning one point ( GBIC: Gigabit Interface Converter ) and dual meaning two points ( GBIC: Gigabit Interface Converter ). Unfortunately this is a topic not covered very well on the web, but I will suggest that you search through <a href="http://docs.sun.com/" target="_blank">http://docs.sun.com/</a> for configuration guides, especially those associated with the A5x00 arrays.
# 5
Thanks, that's a lot better! I assumed FC worked like a LAN from what I was reading but I try not to presume anything. Unfortnuately I've not heard anything from the eBay seller of that array and it's finished now so I'm going to keep an eye on one or two others ending in the next couple of days.
The only other thing I wondered was that I read somewhere about the A5100 working in a loop only? Does that mean it needs 2 GBIC points on the Blade or am I just misreading and misunderstanding everything again?
Someone REALLY should do a helpful starters guide to FC. I know most people who use it will have experience from working in a datacentre or something like that but there are so many of us who just want to know how to use this technology. It doesn't seem half as expensive as I thought it would be!
# 6
When I was using the A5000 I had two cards in each host attached to each interface board and the A5000 configured with split backplane. You can configure the array to have single loop and attach to one HBA. Use the system documention to understand more about how it works:
<a href="http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/prod/storedge#hic" target="_blank">http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/prod/storedge#hic</a>
