Unable To Connect 2 SANs To The Same Server At The Same Time

[Fazza]

I've never really played around with Fibre before so I'm clearly missing some simple (I hope) so here goes:

 

I've got 2 Dell PowerVault MD3600f SANs (one called THISONE and another called THATONE) along with a Dell R630 server with 2 Fibre cards installed in it.

 

If I connect THISONE to either of the 2 Fibre cards on the server it is detected by the Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager software. If I unplug THISONE and connect up THATONE it is also detected by the software on either of the Fibre cards.

 

If I plug both THISONE and THATONE in to the server only one of them gets detected so I cant have THISONE and THATONE connected/detected at the same time.

 

 

What do I need to do to get them to both be detected at the same time - I'm guessing that as they are both the same unit they have a duplicate setting somewhere that is conflicting but this isnt my area of expertise so hopefully someone can point me in the right direction?!

[ZeroHour]

Which card and server get detected when both are plugged in? does it reverse if you switch the cards each is connected to?

[PotNoodleTech]

There were single controllers and dual controllers available - are you sure you haven't got single controller cards in the server as you'll only be able to plug in one san if I recall and any expansion has to be done through MD1200 "dumb" disk trays daisy chained to the MD3600.

 

This is from long ago memory as I dumped SANs 10 years ago. I think I've still got some Dell fibre SAN cards lying around.

[Fazza]

The plot thickens - if I completely disconnect all fibre cables from the SANs/Servers then the SANs are still able to be detected by the Dell software (just not both at the same time) as it appears to be scanning the network subnet and finding the management cards on the 2 SANs that way.

[Fazza]

When THISONE is the only SAN powered on the Dell Software detects it when you perform an automatic detection:

 

 

When THATONE is the only SAN powered on then it is also detected:

 

 

 

When I power on both THISONE and THATONE then only THISONE is detected. However I have noticed that if I hover the mouse over THISONE (when both are powered on and the auto detect run) the IP addresses of both of the SANs are listed so it thinks that they are all one unit for some reason.

 

[PotNoodleTech]

What model card is in the server?

[Fazza]

What model card is in the server?

 

It's a Qlogic but cant recall the model number. The fiber part may be a bit of a red herring at the moment so I have unplugged all of the Fiber cables. I have however, left in the Ethernet cables plugged in to the management ports on each of the SANs.

 

Again, with just one SAN powered on it gets correctly identified/added to the Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager but when both are powered on all the IPs are associated with just one Storage Array.

 

I have made sure both enclosures have a different Enclosure ID as when I found this setting I thought that might have been the issue of them thinking they are all the same unit, sadly this was not the case.

[PotNoodleTech]

It does sound like you have a single channel controller, if so you would only be able to plug one SAN in.

[Fazza]

It does sound like you have a single channel controller, if so you would only be able to plug one SAN in.

 

At the moment ZERO fiber cables are connected to either the SANs or the server. The Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager detects the SAN via the Ethernet Management ports on the SANs.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Fazza

[Davit2005]

I'm assuming this is old school FC rather than FCoE. IP as far as the actual storage connectivity does not play a part in FC or FCoE it is only relevant in iSCSI and NFS.

 

My only dealings with FC were a few years back when I used to add new blades to HP C7000 chassis. when needed In that case we had multiple FlexFabrics on each chassis (multiple chassis), 2 SAN switches and the HP EVA SAN. We migrated to new SAN and used the old one purely for backup which I directly connected to the Veeam server with a single Fibre connection

 

Back then I used to have to add the adapter of the server via its WWN. Can you see the WWN of the adapters on the SAN when you connect both in?

Edited May 4, 2023 by Davit2005