Dell Comprehensive Guide to Load Balancing and Setup for MD3660i and PowerVault Storage Solutions

The Computer Management window is displayed.

2.Click Device Manager to show the list of devices attached to the host.

3.Right-click the multi-path disk device for which you want to set load balance policies, then select Properties.

4.From the MPIO tab, select the load balance policy you want to set for this disk device.

Changing The Load Balance Policy Using The Windows Server 2008 Disk Management Options

1.From the host desktop, right-click My Computer and select Manage. The Computer Management window is displayed.

2.Click Disk Management to show the list of virtual disks attached to the host.

3.Right-click the virtual disk on which you want to set the load balance policy, then click Properties.

4.From the MPIO tab, select the load balance policy that you want to set for this virtual disk.

Increasing Bandwidth With Multiple iSCSI Sessions

The PowerVault MD3660i series storage array in a duplex configuration supports two active/active asymmetric redundant controllers. Each controller has four 1 Gbps Ethernet ports that support iSCSI. The bandwidth of the four ports on the same controller can be aggregated to provide optimal performance. A host can be configured to simultaneously use the bandwidth of both the ports on a controller to access virtual disks owned by the controller. The multi-path failover driver that Dell provides for the MD3660i series storage array can be used to configure the storage array so that all ports are used for simultaneous I/O access. If the multi-path driver detects multiple paths to the same virtual disk through the ports on the same controller, it load-balances I/O access from the host across all ports on the controller.

The following figure illustrates how the initiator can be configured to take advantage of the load balancing capabilities of the multi-path failover driver.

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