Dell CX4 Series User manual

Dell/EMC CX4-series
Fibre Channel Storage Arrays
With Microsoft®Windows
Server®Failover Clusters
Hardware Installation
and Troubleshooting
Guide

Notes, Cautions, and Warnings
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use
of your computer.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or
loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem.
WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal
injury, or death.
___________________
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2008 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction of these materials in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc.
is strictly forbidden.
Trademarks used in this text: Dell, the DELL logo, PowerEdge, and PowerVault are trademarks of
Dell Inc.; Active Directory, Microsoft,Windows,Windows Server,Windows XP and Windows NT
are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/
or other countries.; EMC, Navisphere,and PowerPath are registered trademarks and MirrorView,
SAN Copy, and SnapView are trademarks of EMC Corporation.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities
claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in
trademarks and trade names other than its own.
October 2008 Rev A00

Contents 3
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Cluster Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Cluster Hardware Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Cluster Nodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Cluster Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Supported Cluster Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Direct-Attached Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
SAN-Attached Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Cabling the Private Network . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
NIC Teaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Cabling the Storage Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Cabling Storage for Your Direct-Attached
Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Cabling Storage for Your SAN-Attached
Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

4Contents
3 Preparing Your Systems for
Clustering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Cluster Configuration Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Installation Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Installing the Fibre Channel HBAs. . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Installing the Fibre Channel HBA Drivers. . . . . . 42
Implementing Zoning on a Fibre Channel
Switched Fabric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Using Zoning in SAN Configurations Containing
Multiple Hosts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Using Worldwide Port Name Zoning . . . . . . . . 43
Installing and Configuring the Shared
Storage System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Access Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Storage Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Navisphere Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Navisphere Agent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
EMC PowerPath. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Enabling Access Control and Creating
Storage Groups Using Navisphere . . . . . . . . . 49
Configuring the Hard Drives on the Shared
Storage System(s). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Optional Storage Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Updating a Dell/EMC Storage System for
Clustering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Installing and Configuring a Failover Cluster . . . . . . 53

Contents 5
A Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
B Zoning Configuration Form . . . . . . . . . . . 61
C Cluster Data Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

6Contents

Introduction 7
Introduction
A Dell™ 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), and connections to client systems or other
servers in a multi-tier enterprise application architecture in your cluster.
This document provides information to configure your Dell/EMC CX4-series
fibre channel storage arrays with one or more Failover Clusters. It provides
specific configuration tasks that enable you to deploy the shared storage for
your cluster.
For more information on deploying your cluster with Microsoft®Windows
Server®2003 operating systems, see the Dell Failover Clusters with Microsoft
Windows Server 2003 Installation and Troubleshooting Guide located on the
Dell Support website at support.dell.com. 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 located on the Dell Support website at
support.dell.com.
For a list of recommended operating systems, hardware components, and
driver or firmware versions for your Dell Failover Cluster, see the Dell Cluster
Configuration Support Matrix on the Dell High Availability website at
www.dell.com/ha.

8Introduction
Cluster Solution
Your cluster implements a minimum of two nodes to a maximum of either
eight nodes (for Windows Server 2003) or sixteen nodes (for Windows Server
2008) and provides the following features:
• 8-Gbps and 4-Gbps Fibre Channel technology
• 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
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI). Because Fibre Channel devices
are hot-pluggable, you can add or remove devices from the nodes without
taking the entire cluster offline.
Cluster Hardware Requirements
Your cluster requires the following hardware components:
• Cluster nodes
• Cluster storage

Introduction 9
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 Matrix on the Dell High
Availability website at www.dell.com/ha.
Table 1-1. Cluster Node Requirements
Component Minimum Requirement
Cluster nodes A minimum of two identical PowerEdge servers are required.
The maximum number of nodes that are supported depend
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
RAM required.
Host Bus Adapter
(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 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
controller
One 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.

10 Introduction
Cluster Storage
Table 1-2 lists supported storage systems and the configuration requirements
for the cluster nodes and stand-alone systems connected to the storage systems.
Table 1-3 lists hardware requirements for the storage processor enclosures (SPE),
disk array enclosures (DAE), and standby power supplies (SPS).
NOTE: The DAE-OS is the first DAE enclosure that is connected to the CX4-series
(including all of the storage systems listed above). Core software is preinstalled on
the first five hard drives of the DAE-OS.
Table 1-2. Cluster Storage Requirements
Hardware Components Requirement
Supported storage
systems
One to four supported Dell/EMC storage systems. See
Table 1-3 for specific storage system requirements.
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 systems
Can share one or more supported storage systems. See
"Installing and Configuring the Shared Storage System" on
page 45.
Table 1-3. Dell/EMC Storage System Requirements
Processor
Enclosure
Minimum Storage Possible Storage
Expansion
SPS
CX4-120 One DAE-OS with at
least five and up to 15
hard drives
Up to seven DAE’s with
a maximum of 15 hard
drives each
Two for SPE and
DAE-OS
CX4-240 One DAE-OS with at
least five and up to 15
hard drives
Up to fifteen DAE’s with
a maximum of 15 hard
drives each
Two for SPE and
DAE-OS
CX4-480 One DAE-OS with at
least five and up to 15
hard drives
Up to thirty one DAE’s
with a maximum of 15
hard drives each
Two for SPE and
DAE-OS
CX4-960 One DAE-OS with at
least five and up to 15
hard drives
Up to sixty three DAE’s
with a maximum of 15
hard drives each
Two for SPE and
DAE-OS

Introduction 11
Each storage system in the cluster is centrally managed by one host system
(also called a management station) running EMC Navisphere®Manager—a
centralized storage management application used to configure Dell/EMC
storage systems. Using a graphical user interface (GUI), you can select a
specific view of your storage arrays, as shown in Table 1-4.
You can use Navisphere Manager to perform tasks such as creating RAID
arrays, binding LUNs, and downloading firmware. Optional software for the
shared storage systems include:
• EMC MirrorView™ — Provides synchronous or asynchronous mirroring
between two storage systems.
• EMC SnapView™
— Captures point-in-time images of a LUN for backups
or testing without affecting the contents of the source LUN.
• EMC SAN Copy™ — Moves data between Dell/EMC storage systems
without using host CPU cycles or local area network (LAN) bandwidth.
For more information about Navisphere Manager, MirrorView, SnapView, and
SAN Copy, see "Installing and Configuring the Shared Storage System" on
page 45.
Table 1-4. Navisphere Manager Storage Views
View Description
Storage Shows the logical storage components and their relationships to each
other and identifies hardware faults.
Hosts Shows the host system's storage group and attached logical unit
numbers (LUNs).
Monitors Shows all Event Monitor configurations, including centralized and
distributed monitoring configurations.

12 Introduction
Supported Cluster Configurations
The following sections describe the supported cluster configurations.
Direct-Attached Cluster
In a direct-attached cluster, all the nodes of the cluster are directly attached
to a single storage system. In this configuration, the RAID controllers (or
storage processors) on the storage system are connected by cables directly to
the Fibre Channel HBA ports in the nodes.
Figure 1-1 shows a basic direct-attached, single-cluster configuration.
Figure 1-1. Direct-Attached, Single-Cluster Configuration
EMC PowerPath Limitations in a Direct-Attached Cluster
EMC PowerPath®provides failover capabilities, multiple path detection, and
dynamic load balancing between multiple ports on the same storage
processor. However, the direct-attached clusters supported by Dell connect to
a single port on each storage processor in the storage system. Because of the
single port limitation, PowerPath can provide only failover protection, not
load balancing, in a direct-attached configuration.
private network
public network
cluster node
Fibre Channel
connections
Fibre Channel
connections
cluster node
storage system

Introduction 13
SAN-Attached Cluster
In a SAN-attached cluster, all nodes are attached to a single storage system or
to multiple storage systems through a SAN using redundant switch fabrics.
SAN-attached clusters are superior to direct-attached clusters in
configuration flexibility, expandability, and performance.
Figure 1-2 shows a SAN-attached cluster.
Figure 1-2. SAN-Attached Cluster
Other Documents You May Need
WARNING: The safety information that shipped with your system provides
important safety and regulatory information. Warranty information may be
included within this document or as a separate document.
NOTE: To configure Dell blade server modules in a Dell PowerEdge cluster, see the
Using Dell Blade Servers in a Dell PowerEdge High Availability Cluster document
located on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com.
• The Rack Installation Guide included with your rack solution describes
how to install your system into a rack.
cluster node
private network
Fibre Channel
connections
storage system
Fibre Channel switch
Fibre Channel switch
public network
Fibre Channel
connections
cluster node

14 Introduction
•The Getting Started Guide provides an overview of initially setting up your
system.
• 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
.
• 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
.
• The HBA documentation provides installation instructions for the HBAs.
• Systems management software documentation describes the features,
requirements, installation, and basic operation of the software.
• Operating system documentation describes how to install (if necessary),
configure, and use the operating system software.
• Documentation for any components you purchased separately provides
information to configure and install those options.
• The Dell PowerVault™ tape library documentation provides information
for installing, troubleshooting, and upgrading the tape library.
• Any other documentation that came with your server or storage system.
• The EMC PowerPath documentation that came with your HBA kit(s) and
Dell/EMC Storage Enclosure User’s Guides.
• Updates are sometimes included with the system to describe changes to
the system, software, and/or documentation.
NOTE: Always read the updates first because they often supersede
information in other documents.
• Release notes or readme files may be included to provide last-minute
updates to the system or documentation, or advanced technical reference
material intended for experienced users or technicians.

Cabling Your Cluster Hardware 15
Cabling Your Cluster Hardware
NOTE: To configure Dell blade server modules in a Dell PowerEdge cluster, see the
Using Dell Blade Servers in a Dell PowerEdge High Availability Cluster document
located on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com.
Cabling the Mouse, Keyboard, and Monitor
When installing a cluster configuration in a rack, you must include a switch
box to connect the mouse, keyboard, and monitor to the nodes. See the
documentation included with your rack for instructions on cabling
connections of each node to the switch box.
Cabling the Power Supplies
See the documentation for each component in your cluster solution and
ensure that the specific power requirements are satisfied.
The following guidelines are recommended to protect your cluster solution
from power-related failures:
• For nodes with multiple power supplies, plug each power supply into a
separate AC circuit.
• Use uninterruptible power supplies (UPS).
• For some environments, consider having backup generators and power
from separate electrical substations.
Figure 2-1 and Figure 2-2 illustrate recommended methods for power cabling
for a cluster solution consisting of two PowerEdge systems and two storage
systems. To ensure redundancy, the primary power supplies of all the
components are grouped into one or two circuits and the redundant power
supplies are grouped into a different circuit.

16 Cabling Your Cluster Hardware
Figure 2-1. Power Cabling Example With One Power Supply in the PowerEdge Systems
01
0123
01
0123
redundant power
supplies on one AC
power strip (or on one
AC PDU [not shown])
NOTE: This illustration is intended only to demonstrate the power
distribution of the components.
primary power supplies
on one AC power strip
(or on one AC Power
Distribution Unit [not
shown])

Cabling Your Cluster Hardware 17
Figure 2-2. Power Cabling Example With Two Power Supplies in the PowerEdge Systems
Cabling Your Cluster for Public and Private
Networks
The network adapters in the cluster nodes provide at least two network
connections for each node, as described in Table 2-1.
NOTE: To configure Dell blade server modules in a Dell PowerEdge cluster, see the
Using Dell Blade Servers in a Dell PowerEdge High Availability Cluster document
located on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com.
01
0123
01
0123
redundant power supplies
on one AC power strip (or
on one AC PDU [not
shown])
NOTE: This illustration is intended only to demonstrate the power
distribution of the components.
primary power supplies
on one AC power strip
(or on one AC PDU [not
shown])

18 Cabling Your Cluster Hardware
Figure 2-3 shows an example of cabling in which dedicated network adapters
in each node are connected to each other (for the private network) and the
remaining network adapters are connected to the public network.
Figure 2-3. Example of Network Cabling Connection
Cabling the Public Network
Any network adapter supported by a system running TCP/IP may be used to
connect to the public network segments. You can install additional network
adapters to support additional public network segments or to provide
redundancy in the event of a faulty primary network adapter or switch port.
Table 2-1. Network Connections
Network Connection Description
Public network All connections to the client LAN.
At least one public network must be configured for Mixed
mode for private network failover.
Private network A dedicated connection for sharing cluster health and
status information only.
cluster node 1
public network
public
network
adapter
private network
private network
adapter
cluster node 2

Cabling Your Cluster Hardware 19
Cabling the Private Network
The private network connection to the nodes is provided by a different
network adapter in each node. This network is used for intra-cluster
communications. Table 2-2 describes three possible private network
configurations.
NOTE: Throughout this document, Gigabit Ethernet is used to refer to either Gigabit
Ethernet or 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
Using Dual-Port Network Adapters
You can configure your cluster to use the public network as a failover for
private network communications. If you are using dual-port network adapters,
do not configure both ports simultaneously to support both public and
private networks.
NIC Teaming
NIC teaming combines two or more NICs to provide load balancing and fault
tolerance. Your cluster supports NIC teaming, only in a public network. NIC
teaming is not supported in a private network.
Use the same brand of NICs in a team. Do not mix brands in NIC teaming.
Cabling the Storage Systems
This section provides information on cabling your cluster to a storage system
in a direct-attached configuration or to one or more storage systems in a SAN-
attached configuration.
Table 2-2. Private Network Hardware Components and Connections
Method Hardware Components Connection
Network
switch
Gigabit Ethernet network
adapters and switches
Connect standard Ethernet cables
from the network adapters in the
nodes to a Gigabit Ethernet switch.
Point-to-Point
Gigabit
Ethernet
(two-node
clusters only)
Copper Gigabit Ethernet
network adapters
Connect a standard Ethernet cable
between the Gigabit Ethernet network
adapters in both nodes.

20 Cabling Your Cluster Hardware
Cabling Storage for Your Direct-Attached Cluster
A direct-attached cluster configuration consists of redundant Fibre Channel
host bus adapter (HBA) ports cabled directly to a Dell/EMC storage system.
Figure 2-4 shows an example of a direct-attached, single cluster configuration
with redundant HBA ports installed in each cluster node.
Figure 2-4. Direct-Attached Cluster Configuration
cluster node
private network
public network
cluster node
storage system
Fibre
Channel
connections
Fibre Channel
connections