6Platform Guide
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High-Availability Cluster Configurations
This section provides information about the supported operating systems, HBAs, and HBA drivers
for your cluster configuration.
NOTICE: All cluster nodes in a Cluster FE500W-IA64 solution must run the same operating system.
NOTICE: HBAs must be identical if they are installed in clusters using redundant paths. Cluster
configurations are tested and certified using identical HBAs installed in all of the cluster nodes.
Usingdissimilar HBAs in your cluster nodes is not supported.

Service Pack Support

At the time this document was printed, a service pack was not available for the Windows
Server2003 Enterprise Edition for 64-bit Itaniu m-based Systems operating system. However,
hotfix
KB818877
and the most recent StorPort hotfix are required. These hotfixes will be
incorporated into Service Pack 1 when it is available.
See Knowledge Base articles
KB818877
and
KB838894
, the current StorPort hotfix at this time,
located on the Microsoft support website at
www.microsoft.com
for more information.

HBA Support for PowerEdge Cluster FE500W-IA64 Configurations

The Cluster FE500W-IA64 configuration supports the QLogic QLA2340 HBA. No additional
HBAs are supported.
See "Installing Peripheral Components in Your ClusterNode PCI Slots" for PCI slot recommendations.

Fibre Channel Switches

When you are configuring your ClusterFE500W-IA64 solution, use the following guidelines:
• Dual (redundant) fabric configurations are required.
• A maximum of 16 switches may be used in a SAN.
• A minimum of two and a maximum of eight Inter-Switch Links (ISLs) may exist between any
two directly communicating switches. A single ISL is permitted only when connecting to a
remote switch in a EMC
®
MirrorView™ configuration.
• A maximum of three hops (the number of ISLs each data frame must traverse) may exist
between a host and a storage system.
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