Access "Taming HBAs"
This article is part of the Vol. 2 No. 5 July 2003 issue of Evaluating the benefits of IP SANs
Installing, configuring and maintaining Fibre Channel (FC) host bus adapters (HBAs) is the bane of many storage area network (SAN) administrators today. Often challenging to configure during installation and sometimes requiring server reboots after the initial deployment, the HBA becomes yet another maintenance nuisance for SAN administrators. But help is on the way: Some new cards offer better management tools that should simplify HBA administration tasks and extend the capabilities of this vital SAN component. SANs already contain many points of complexity. Compatibility matrices require SAN administrators to double check HBA driver and firmware levels before doing even the most basic tasks. Storage arrays come and go from storage networks, necessitating that HBAs be reconfigured to discover the new logical unit number (LUN) assignments on the arrays. And as data continues to grow, LUNs must be allocated, so server reboots become mandatory for some operating systems in order for their HBA to discover these new LUNs. With so many other administrative tasks,... Access >>>
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Taming HBAs
by Jerome Wendt
Installing, configuring and maintaining Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs) is the bane of many SAN administrators. Thankfully, these new cards offer better management tools.
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