Home > Ask the Storage Technology Experts > Questions & Answers > Unix and Windows, to zone or not to zone
Ask The Storage Expert: Questions & Answers
EMAIL THIS

Unix and Windows, to zone or not to zone

Christopher Poelker EXPERT RESPONSE FROM: Christopher Poelker

Pose a Question
Other Storage Categories
Meet all Storage Experts
Become an Expert for this site


Digg This!    StumbleUpon Toolbar StumbleUpon    Bookmark with Delicious Del.icio.us   


>
QUESTION POSED ON: 20 June 2003
We have a Brocade SAN switch connected to EMC storage and multiple Unix servers. We are planning to connect a Windows cluster to it and we would like to implement zoning in the Brocade switch.

We would like to know the best way to implement the zoning. Does zoning help improve performance in any way? Do we have to zone each independent servers or one common zone for Unix and one for Windows?

>
It's always best to zone out Unix and Windows into different zones. Since the EMC FA ports are usually defined per operating system type you can define specific storage ports into zones containing the different operating systems. Keeping Windows away from Unix removes the possibility of Windows servers attempting to write signatures on Unix volumes.

Although a common zone will usually be OK for management separation of specific OS types, using the smallest zones possible will isolate error traffic to the specific zones and keep your SAN humming along even when one HBA goes berserk. The only affected servers would be the servers within the same zone as the flaky HBA.

For your cluster, each server in the cluster needs to have access to the same disks. A SCSI reserve command needs to be communicated to the quorum resource for control of the cluster so every server in the cluster needs access to it. The same holds true for data volumes in the cluster. I would create a zone that has all the server and storage ports allocated to the cluster in the same zone.

By the way, NEVER associate any other resources to the quorum disk in your cluster. Cluster failover happens much faster and cleaner when the quorum resource is separate from application resource disks. You also need to make sure that each server in the cluster sees each disk as the same drive letter, and same "physical disk" resource in the registry. This makes resource failover clean and fast.

Chris

Editor's note: Do you agree with this expert's response? If you have more to share, post it in one of our discussion forums.


BROWSE BY TAG
Storage Networking: SANs,   EMC,   Ask the Experts,   VIEW ALL TAGS

Digg This!    StumbleUpon Toolbar StumbleUpon    Bookmark with Delicious Del.icio.us   



RELATED CONTENT
Storage Networking: SANs
SAN predictions for 2005: The year of programmable storage
Does Ethernet track requests sent to the server?
Ten best practices for moving data files to a SAN
Connecting multimode fiber cable to single mode
Determining the availability of a four-node network
Why you shouldn't share disk resources in a SAN
Getting information from NAS vendors
Separate HBAs for tape access
Configuring your first SAN: Usable versus raw storage
Configuring your first SAN: Creating your LUNs

RELATED RESOURCES
2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems
Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts
Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary



Search and Browse the Expert Answer Center
Search and browse more than 25,000 question and answer pairs from more than 250 TechTarget industry experts.
Browse our Expert Advice



Search for Data Management Tools
TechTarget Storage Media
Storage Magazine View this month\\'s issue and subscribe today.
Storage Decisions Apply online for free conference admission.
SearchStorage.com
HomeNewsMagazineTopicsLearningMultimediaWhite PapersBlogsEventsAbout Us

About Us  |  Contact Us  |  For Advertisers  |  For Business Partners  |  Site Index  |  RSS
TechTarget provides technology professionals with the information they need to perform their jobs - from developing strategy, to making cost-effective purchase decisions and managing their organizations' technology projects - with its network of technology-specific websites, events and online magazines.

TechTarget Corporate Web Site  |  Media Kits  |  Site Map




All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2000 - 2009, TechTarget | Read our Privacy Policy
  TechTarget - The IT Media ROI Experts