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Addition of SAN switches
Hi team,
I want to extend my SAN network by adding new SAN switches.My existing SAN consists of DS 200B switches.How i can done this work?.Will Inter switch linking is possible ? .Do i have to purchase ISL Trunking license if loadbalancing and failover are needed ?. What is the recommendation for purchasing the new switchs?.By connecting the old and new switches through patch cable is enough (having same domain ID) for work to be done.
Thanks
mdani1
56 Posts
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August 20th, 2012 09:00
Victor,
If you dont have any single port also left free on your switch to connect ISL to new switch which you planning to buy then you have to take downtime for those ports ( or hosts connected to those ports ) which will be used to connect new switches.For your case I suggest,connect two ISL's to the new switch for redudancy. Out of two ports take one from first eight and one from last eight on DS 200B16.
On New switch :-
1) Power on and login to it and disable the switch - [switchdisable]
2) Clear the config if any on new swich ( it should not be ) - [cfgclear & cfgsave ]
3) Change the domain ID to anything apart from the ones in exisitng fabric and keep the remaining paramters same as existing swich. [configure and set fabric.ops]
4) configure two ports as E ports which you decide to use for connecting to existing fabric. [ portcfgeport ]
5) disable those two ports [ portdisable ]
On existing switch :-
1) Free two ports on your exisitng switch for ISL purpose to new switch. ( you have to plan your way)
2) Disable those two ports - [ portdisable ]
3) Physically connect cables across switches.
4) Enable those ports on both switches one after other.
Check switchshow , islshow and others and hopefully it should merge and you can see single fabric.
In case of any merge issue you can check for the reasons and solve.
Best help you will get in brocade admin guide for all comands and processes and release notes in case mismatch of codes .
Regards,
Mrinal Dani
dynamox
2 Intern
2 Intern
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20.4K Posts
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August 13th, 2012 04:00
http://community.brocade.com/thread/4671?start=0&tstart=0
RRR
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
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5.7K Posts
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August 14th, 2012 03:00
when you connect a new switch to an existing fabric, make sure all domain ids are different!
mdani1
56 Posts
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August 14th, 2012 07:00
Hi victor,
Above you have asked multiple questions in single.
A) For adding or merging a new switch into existing fabric and using trunking feature you need to perform the following checks and steps :-
1) check the licenses because trunking is licensed feature on brocade switches for load balancing.
2) For just merging the switch we use ISL connection and above answers can help you how to connect the ISL and configure.
3) Domain id is unique ID for every switch in fabric and so if your adding new switch first you need to change the domain id to other so it should not be same as any switch in existing fabric or else it wont merge.
4) Apart from domain ID there are few other parameters which you should check like interoptability of the new switch code and the old ones in fabric. So best is to go on powerlink and check the interop matrix for the current switches and know the codes and models which can be connected to your switches.This will help you to know which swiches you can buy untill you not planning to replacing the existing fabric also.
5) Some parameters like RA_TOV and ED_TOV also people cross check before merging. Also there should not be any config or deafult zone config on new switch and if there it should be wiped out before you connect and configure 'E' ports and enable them.
If you need step by step process in cli we can paste here but you will easily get in your admin guide.
B) When the question comes for which switch to buy :-
You need to see the current requirement of ports + future requirement of ports + current topology you have + cost contraint + interop matrix and then take a decision what you need to buy.
For example if i have many small DS200B only in my fabric and analyse that fabric needs more and more switches in future and high thorughput then I can upgrade to director class switches and save space and number of hops in fabric.
So that is complete desgin consideration and best person is you to analyse and take decision with your architect.
If you can list out all those and give us then we can try to find which switches are best suitable for your environment.
Hope this helps you bit.
Regards,
Mrinal Dani
victorvarghese
5 Posts
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August 18th, 2012 06:00
Hi ,
Sorry for the late response.Actually iam planing to buy a 16port switches and existing one is DS 200B16 ports fully populated,so for doing the activity down time is required or not?.Can any one explain step by step procedure for adding the new switches.?.(including changing the domain id).Should i configure the new switch parameters exactly as the old one(except domain id) or it will be automatically taken while iam connecting to the old one?After this process am i able to add new host to the storage?
thanks
regards