Contents:

	Introduction: The Business Continuance Challenge
	The Solution: High-Availability Fibre Channel SAN
	Configuration Details 1. Fibre Channel Disk Array Information 2. Fibre Channel Switch Information 3. SFP Information 4. Fibre Channel HBA Information 5. Application Information 6. Operating System Information 7. Management Software 8. Test Tools
	Test Configurations Topology 1 information Topology 2 information Topology 3 information
	Performance Test
	Detailed Test Cases
	Summary

Introduction: The Business Continuance Challenge		top of page

As companies become ever more reliant on server-based applications and data, any event that interrupts access to that data -even for a few hours -threatens productivity and profitability. To ensure uninterrupted business activity, IT managers need flexible storage solutions that enable them to create high-availability environments that help prevent outages to ensure business continuance under all conditions.

The Solution: High-Availability Fibre Channel SAN		top of page

Storage Area Networks (SANs) are ideal for facilitating such a high-availability environment. A SAN interconnects multiple shared storage environments and servers into a storage network, with all storage resources available to any server, regardless of physical location. SANs offer the advantages of built-in redundancy, dynamic failover protection and automatic traffic rerouting. A high-availability SAN can also be tuned to enable load sharing to significantly improve overall performance.

Creating a high-availability SAN with Adaptec SANbloc 2502 storage array, Emulex LP10000 HBA and Vixel InSpeed 9050FF switch

The Adaptec SANbloc 2Gb RAID is a Fibre Channel RAID that delivers the price/performance, availability and flexibility to meet today's real-world enterprise requirements. Based on a modular design, it can be scaled in multiple dimensions, enabling flexible configuration of capacity, performance and functionality.

The SANbloc RAID is designed for maximum availability, with redundant, hot-swappable RAID controllers, dual host ports, power supplies, power connections, advanced cooling modules, port bypass circuitry and environmental monitoring, and battery-protected mirrored write cache.

The configurations described and tested in this Solution Report combine the Adaptec FS4500 Storage Array with Emulex LP10000 Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter and Vixel InSpeed 9050FF loop switch in a Fibre Channel SAN environment. Three SAN configurations were tested:

1. Fabric SAN Configuration
2. Windows 2003 2-node Cluster Configuration
3. Microsoft Exchange 2003 LoadSim Performance Configuration

Configuration details		top of page

Note: Various Fibre Channel peripheral devices were tested randomly in different configurations from those listed below.

1. Fibre Channel Disk Array information
Brand and Model: Adaptec SANbloc 2502 (Dual Controller)
Disk Array Firmware Level: 9.40.00
Enclosures: 2 cascaded
Number of Disk Drives: 28

2. Fibre Channel Switch information
Brand and Model: Vixel InSpeed 9050FF
Switch Type: Fabric Switch
Firmware Level: 1.02.00290

Switch used for I/O Testing: Brand and Model: Vixel InSpeed 355
Switch Type: Loop Switch
Firmware Level: 2.04

3. SFP information
Brand and Model: Finisar FTRJ-8519-3-2-5
Brand and Model: IBM SFF-PGG-200-M5-SN-1
Brand and Model: Stratos MPLC-20-8-1-8L
Brand and Model: Agilent HFBR-5720L

4. Fibre Channel HBA information
Brand and Model: Emulex LP10000
Firmware Level: 1.81A1 and 1.90a4
BIOS Version: Fcode Firmware 3.21a2
Driver Version: 5-5.10a10
PCI/PCI-X: PCI-X

5. Application information
Backup application: Computer Associates ARCserve
v11.1 for Windows
Server Application:Microsoft Exchange 2003 Server

6. Operating system information
Windows 2003 (Enterprise Server)
Windows 2000 SP4 (Advance Server)

7. Management Software
Spheras RAID Watcher v1.53
HBAnywhere v.2.0a13

8. Test Tools
NTstress v4.3 (block-level test tool)
NTFileCopy v1.0 (file-level test tool)
Microsoft LoadSim 2003

Test Configurations		top of page

Topology 1 Information

Topology 1:Fabric SAN Configuration

Test results

Topology 2 Information

Topology 2: Windows 2003 2-node Cluster Configuration

Test results

Topology 3 Information

Topology 3: Microsoft Exchange 2003 LoadSim Performance Configuration

Test results

Performance Testing		top of page

For Exchange Server 2003, performance is measured using the MAPI Messaging Benchmark 3 (MMB3) included in the Microsoft LoadSim 2003 utility. The benchmark measures the performance of an Exchange Server and provides the results as a function of response time. In particular, the 95th percentile response means that the vast majority of the clients attached to the Exchange Server under test will experience this response time when accessing the Exchange Server. Microsoft guidelines suggest that the weighted average of Load-Sim-measured 95th-percentile responses measure at less than 1 second (expressed as 1000ms).

Below are the 95th Percentile Response Time results with the Emulex LP10000 HBA, compared to those with the Emulex LP1050 HBA.

Additional performance information

Slow I/O performance was encountered when using PCI-X 100MHz slots on the Supermicro X5DA8 motherboard. The LoadSim 95th percentile results were substantially (more than 6 seconds) slower when the LP10000 was installed in a PCI-X 100MHz slot.

Detailed Test Cases		top of page

Summary		top of page

The combination of the Adaptec SANbloc Fibre Channel RAID and Emulex LP10000 Fibre Channel HBAs and Vixel InSpeed 9050FF Fabric Switch provide a flexible, reliable and easily managed solution for deploying high-availability SANs using a variety of configurations. Topologies can be designed to meet specific availability or architecture requirements without compromising ease of management or reliability.