Dell 4200 manual Cabling the Cluster Hardware, Cluster Cabling

Chapter 2

Cabling the Cluster Hardware

The Dell PowerEdge Cluster must be installed and cabled correctly to ensure that the cluster functions prop- erly. This chapter instructs you on how to cable your system hardware for a cluster configuration.

Information about configuring your PowerEdge Cluster is provided in Chapter 3, “Configuring the Cluster Software.”

For instructions on installing the Microsoft Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition operating system and the Microsoft clustering software, refer to the Microsoft Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition Administrator’s Guide and Release Notes and the Microsoft Windows NT Cluster Server Administrator’s Guide . For installation and configuration information specific to the Dell PowerEdge 4200 systems or the Dell PowerEdge Scalable Disk System 100 (SDS 100) storage system, refer to the Dell documentation for those systems.

Cluster Cabling

The PowerEdge Cluster consists of two PowerEdge 4200 server systems, one or two PowerEdge SDS 100 storage systems, a 3Com SuperStack II Switch 3000 TX, and a pair of power strips or a single power distribution unit, depending on how the system is configured. These com- ponents are interconnected as follows:

•A 4-meter (m) small computer system interface (SCSI) cable is connected from the RAID controller in each PowerEdge system to the SDS 100 storage system(s).

•A system management bus (SMB) cable is con- nected from the SMB connector on one of the two PowerEdge systems (preferably the system desig- nated as Node 1 or the primary node) to the SMB connector on the SDS 100 storage system.

•Category 5 Ethernet cables are connected from each of the network interface controllers (NICs) in each PowerEdge system to the 3Com switch.

•Power cables are connected according to the safety requirements for your region:

—For customers in the Americas: Power cables for the cluster components are routed through two Power Techniques power strips. The pri- mary power supplies of the cluster components are all cabled to one power strip, and the redun- dant power supplies on the components are all cabled to the second power strip. Each power strip is connected, via Type B plugs and connec- tors, to a separate alternating current (AC) circuit, each with a minimum power capacity of 20 amperes (amps).

—For customers in Europe: All power cables are connected to one or two Marway power distri- bution units (PDUs), Model MPD-411013 or two Power Techniques power strips with Type B plugs, Model P906200.

The following sections describe each of these cabling procedures.

One Shared Storage Subsystem Cabled to a Cluster

Use the following procedure to connect your cluster system to a single SDS 100 storage system. Refer to Figure 2-1 for a diagram of the cabling scheme.

CAUTION: Do not turn on the PowerEdge 4200 systems or the SDS 100 storage system(s) until all cabling is complete.

Cabling the Cluster Hardware 2-1