K2 RAID Fibre Channel port redundant configuration (for QLogic and Brocade switches)
Custom K2 SAN systems can be configured to take advantage of port redundancy, as explained in this section.
FC port redundant
Note: Do not use the FC port redundant configuration without first
consulting with Grass Valley Server Engineering.
Two K2 Servers each connect to two RAID controllers. Servers A
and B are redundant.
With this configuration the redundancy is at the Fibre Channel port level. If one of the FC ports, cables, or RAID controllers fails, the redundant connection takes over.
The following rules and policies apply to the FC port redundant
configuration:
- Only use this configuration on systems that do not have a conflicting
failover policy. For example, if a system is assembled with an iSCSI or LAN
Connect failover mechanism AND a Fibre Channel port failover mechanism, the
policies of these two failover mechanisms can conflict during a failover
event and result in scrambled data pathways. Examples of systems without
conflicting failover policies are as follows:
- A system with iSCSI or LAN Connect clients that are non-redundant. This means the clients have just one connection to the iSCSI or LAN Connect VLAN (media ports on GigE switch). Since there is no iSCSI or LAN Connect failover in this type of system, there is no conflict with the Fibre Channel failover policy.
- A system with Fibre Channel connected clients. Fibre Channel clients can be non-redundant (one FC cable connected to the FC switch) or redundant (two FC cables connected to the FC switch). The Fibre Channel failover policy is cohesive between FC client connections and FC RAID connections, so there is no conflict.
- Do not use this configuration on a system with redundant iSCSI or LAN Connect clients, as this introduces a conflicting failover policy. If iSCSI or LAN Connect clients are redundant and K2 Server FC ports are redundant, failover conflicts occur that render the system inoperable.