Lab - Bright news! FC addition

Update: More Arstechnica goodness! Brocade provides free e-learning: http://www.brocade.com/education/course-schedule/index.page

See Server Room thread here: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1138681&p=21409635#p21409635

Thanks to the good people in TheServerRoom@arstechnica, the lab has a wonderful new addition - FC! I have managed to acquire the following for a very low price:
  • Brocade 3800 FC switch (2Gb, 16-port w. SFPs, all licensing)
  • QLogic QLA2344/2342 HBAs (1 quad/4 dual, PCI-X)
Very exciting! I have very little hands-on experience with FC, and seeing as how it's an industry standard for serious storage, I should probably fix that. Thus, extra connectivity!

I will be using the trial version of the Open-E VSA to start, as it can simulate an FC SAN. I think the FalconStor VSA does this as well. The quad FC HBA will go in the i7 ESXi host, and each of the i5 hosts will get a dual FC HBA. Of course, this brings me down from seven ethernet ports per host to five, but the added option of FC is worth it. Besides, configurations are not set in stone.

Cables will be chunked in to my monoprice order - which I need to plan out/order already.

One bummer I discovered today - the PERC5i will not be going in the i7 host - the x8-sized slot is actually only x4 electrically. Pretty sure it won't work in that config. Hopefully the ICH10 RAID will be seen by ESXi for datastore usage.

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