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January 11th, 2016 22:00

Connecting VNXe3200 DPE - Recommendation

Hi

Refer to the attached picture

I have brand new box of vnxe3200 with two DAE

DPE : 25 x 900 SAS

DAE 1 : 2.5" SAS  ( 3 flash + 6 sas)

DAE 2:  3.5" NL-SAS ( 9 x 4TB)


I am just wondering is there any recommendation from EMC which DAE should be connected first with DPE ?

For instance port 0 of DPE  should always be connected with SAS enclosure  or NL-SAS enclosure ?


I have read different docs so far and there is no such discussion but I would like to double check here on the forum.


thanks


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195 Posts

January 13th, 2016 07:00

You are correct that these are cabled more like a channel extended out from the controllers rather than a loop.

And yes, as per my  suggestion there would not be anything connected to the bus 0 out of the controllers, or to the output side of the 3.5" DAE.

I can understand not wanting to 'compromise' the factory drive placement if you aren't familiar with the product. 

For the record, until the pools/RAID groups are defined, and Fast Cache is configured there isn't any physical reason that you couldn't move things around.  And in the current firmwares I actually believe that you can 'roam' drives around after configuration, but I have never had a reason to try that, and I wouldn't suggest doing it for fun.

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715 Posts

January 12th, 2016 00:00

I would install the 2.5" DAE first into the DPE then the 3.5".

195 Posts

January 12th, 2016 07:00

Were this mine I would likely do the following:

The DPE is Bus 0 Enc 0

Make the 2.5" DAE Bus 1 Enc 0

Make the 3.5" DAE Bus 1 Enc 1

That gives you better disk balance (25 on Bus 0 and 18 on BUS 1).

Alternatively, make the 3.5" DAE Bus 0 ENC 1, but shift a bunch of the disks from the DPE to the 2.5" DAE to balance the count out a bit between the two buses.

I would also swap a drive or two between the 2.5" enclosures to move one or two of the EFDs to the other BUS.  Then set up Fast Cache using one from each BUS as per EMC best practice.

Obvious caveat:  ***Do not move any vault disks.***  They need to stay right where they are.

13 Posts

January 12th, 2016 17:00

Hi Zaphod

Appreciate your response.

The disks inside DPE and DAEs are already populated/organised by EMC ( as stated above) before they arrived to our premises,

We have  3 Flash disk for Fast cache only , not for FAST VP , I am not thinking to shift the drives .

Just explaining what you have suggested above, pls confirm .

1- DPE Port 1 will connect to 2.5" DAE ( 3 Flash + 6 SAS) at primary (circle) port. --> BUS1 ENC0

2- Extended port (diamond) of  above ENC 0 will further connect up to Primary port (circle) of 3.5" DAE ( BUS1 ENC1)

At the end, port 0 of DPE and extended port (diamond) of the last top 3.5"DAE will remain empty.?

This looks like a daisy chain with stacked cabling. Coming from HP EVA background i thought the loop should be completed back to the storage controller but I have realized now bus and disk balancing is more important than looping in EMC. Looping could be stacked or interleaved .

pls confirm

thanks

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