2

What is the maximum number of servers that can connect to a Dell MD3000i ??

Chopper3
  • 100,240
  • 9
  • 106
  • 238
Sreeraj
  • 21
  • 1

3 Answers3

2

It depends... What type of SAN are you using?

You might want to read more on the subject: http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=25001

The type you are using supports up to 16 hosts. Source: http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/powervault-MD3000i/pd

Bart De Vos
  • 17,761
  • 6
  • 62
  • 81
  • I am using DELL MD 3000 iSCSI SAN – Sreeraj Feb 16 '11 at 14:10
  • http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/powervault-MD3000i/pd is telling Expands up to 45 disk drives and 90TB of capacity but the other one http://www.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/global/products/pvaul/topics/en/us/pvaul_md3000i_landing?c=us&l=en is telling expand to support up to 45TB of data. – Sreeraj Feb 16 '11 at 15:28
0

It depends on the SAN make and model, also whether server are multi-pathed too. Come back to us with more details.

Chopper3
  • 100,240
  • 9
  • 106
  • 238
  • I am using DELL MD 3000 iSCSI SAN – Sreeraj Feb 16 '11 at 14:08
  • I'm not aware of that product, do you mean an MD3000 DAS box? – Chopper3 Feb 16 '11 at 14:13
  • Thanks for updating your comments - that specific machine can support 32 servers or 16 if they have redundant paths. – Chopper3 Feb 16 '11 at 14:18
  • Dell PowerVault MD3000i . Now I confused of this a SAN / DAS ? .By googling I can find The Dell PowerVault MD3000i can consolidate up to sixteen (16) fully redundant servers, expand to support up to 45TB – Sreeraj Feb 16 '11 at 14:28
  • Sorry I didn't get you "redundant paths" means ? One more can have tow servers sharing a single san portion ? – Sreeraj Feb 16 '11 at 14:37
  • I got what is the redundant mean. there will be a mirroring of servers for fail over. One more can have two servers sharing a single san portion ? – Sreeraj Feb 16 '11 at 14:40
  • Note that the host connectivity is a licensed option (or at least used to be). If you wish to have 16 hosts you need to buy/have the correct license as well. – HampusLi Feb 16 '11 at 14:43
  • downvoted. the o/p specified the model exactly, if you're not familiar with it, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist – dyasny Feb 16 '11 at 14:44
  • 2
    dyasny - erm...sorry to put you right but I edited the entire question and title AFTER he revealed it in this comment stream - his original question was simply "Maximum number of servers that can connect to a san ?" for both title and question, he also edited his first comment from "DS 3000" to what it is now. I can't recall how much rep you need to view edits in questions or comments but please don't leap to conclusions when the one you're leaping at is an moderator and you may not have seen/looked-for the details. I could care less about losing rep but I wanted you to know the full story. – Chopper3 Feb 16 '11 at 15:00
  • yes Sreeraj, more than one server can be presented with the same LUN but you need to ensure you're using a cluster-aware file system and locking manager. – Chopper3 Feb 16 '11 at 15:01
  • What is the difference between MD3000 and MD1000 – Sreeraj Feb 16 '11 at 15:17
  • The 1000 is a single-server directly-attached (via 3Gb SAS) disk shelf, the 3000i is an multi-server ethernet-attached iSCSI SAN box. – Chopper3 Feb 16 '11 at 15:21
  • Which means I can connect only one server with MD1000. – Sreeraj Feb 16 '11 at 15:24
  • 1
    Chopper3 - ah, sorry then. I have seen edits, but since the original post has been removed and replaced by other text, instead of something like a changelog in the post, the way it's usually done, All I could assume about your edits was a change in formatting or spelling maybe. I am myself a moderator in several IT communities, and when I edit a post, I do it so that it's obvious what was the original text and what the edit is. Might make sense to make that the standard way of editing posts IMO. Nothing personal of course – dyasny Feb 16 '11 at 19:17
  • Thanks for coming back to me, I'm actually no expert in the details of how the SE system work (I just the spam-hammer really :) ) but I know as a mod I can see every tiny change made, the problem is I don't have a second non-mod account to see how that behaves in situations like this. But I just wanted you to know that at the time I asked for better part details he'd provided almost no information, so you didn't think bad of me :) – Chopper3 Feb 16 '11 at 19:21
  • 1
    yeah, no probs. At the forums I mod, we normally delete anything irrelevant replacing it with a bunch of asterisks (spam, language etc), and any changes are in the form of "Edit by mod: blah blah" so that the original post is preserved more or less. Anyhow, good to have this cleared out – dyasny Feb 16 '11 at 20:43
0

Since a "SAN" is a "storage area network", there is no maximum for the question that you're asking.

  1. If you're asking about how many hosts can be logically linked to a controller, or a fabric, or other device, then that's an implementation detail that will be specific to the make and model of your equipment. As @Chopper3 said, include those details and an answer may be feasible.
  2. If you're asking about how many physical connections can be made, go into your server room and count the bloody ports on the equipment, or read the spec sheet from the vendor.
mfinni
  • 35,711
  • 3
  • 50
  • 86