Connecting Network Cables - Dell EqualLogic PS4000 Hardware Maintenance

PS4000 Hardware Maintenance
Table 3-3: Network Recommendations (Continued)
Recommendation
No STP functionality
on switch ports that
connect end nodes
Flow Control enabled
on switches and NICs
Unicast storm control
disabled on switches
Jumbo Frames enabled Enable Jumbo Frames on each switch and NIC that handles
VLANs

Connecting Network Cables

A PS4000 array must have at least one active network connection. Multiple
network connections are recommended for performance and availability.
3–6
Description
If possible, do not use Spanning-Tree (STP) on switch ports that
connect end nodes (iSCSI initiators or storage array network
interfaces).
However, if you must use STP or RSTP (preferable to STP),
you should enable the port settings (available on some
switches) that let the port immediately transition into STP
forwarding state upon link up. This functionality can reduce
network interruptions that occur when devices restart, and
should only be enabled on switch ports that connect end nodes.
You can use Spanning-Tree for a single-cable connection
between switches, or trunking for multi-cable connections
between switches.
Enable Flow Control on each switch port and NIC that handles
iSCSI traffic. PS Series arrays will correctly respond to Flow
Control.
Disable unicast storm control on each switch that handles iSCSI
traffic, if the switch provides this feature. However, the use of
broadcast and multicast storm control is encouraged on
switches.
iSCSI traffic.
Configure switches to use VLANs to separate iSCSI SAN
traffic from other network traffic.
Maintaining Control Modules