Dell CX4 manual Supported Cluster Configurations, Direct-Attached Cluster

Supported Cluster Configurations

The following sections describe the supported cluster configurations.

Direct-Attached Cluster

In a direct-attached cluster, all the nodes of the cluster are directly attached to a single storage system. In this configuration, the RAID controllers (or storage processors) on the storage system are connected by cables directly to the Fibre Channel HBA ports in the nodes.

Figure 1-1 shows a basic direct-attached, single-cluster configuration.

Figure 1-1. Direct-Attached, Single-Cluster Configuration

	public network
cluster node		cluster node
	private network

Fibre Channel	Fibre Channel
connections	connections
	storage system

EMC PowerPath Limitations in a Direct-Attached Cluster

EMC PowerPath® provides failover capabilities, multiple path detection, and dynamic load balancing between multiple ports on the same storage processor. However, the direct-attached clusters supported by Dell connect to a single port on each storage processor in the storage system. Because of the single port limitation, PowerPath can provide only failover protection, not load balancing, in a direct-attached configuration.

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Introduction