The primary objective of SAN (storage area network) connectivity in a cluster is to provide solid and stable connectivity between cluster nodes and the storage system. Before installing Novell Cluster Services and Business Continuity Clustering, ensure that the SAN configuration is established and verified.
Use the guidelines in this section to design the SAN connectivity for each of the peer clusters in the business continuity cluster:
Use host-based multipath I/O management.
Use redundant SAN connections to provide fault-tolerant connectivity between the cluster nodes and the shared storage devices.
Connect each node via two fabrics to the storage environment.
Use a minimum of two mirror connections between storage environments over different fabrics and wide area networks.
Ensure that the distance between storage subsystems is within the limitations of the fabric used given the amount of data, how the data is mirrored, and how long applications can wait for acknowledgement. Also consider support for asynchronous versus synchronous connections.