[olug] Fibre Channel on Linux

[Rod Hurley]

Most all monitoring software works the same, and works well.  I don't
have (or hear of) issues with monitoring and management software related
to FC SANs.  I also have SAN without Linux, but using Netware and
Micro$oft with it efficiently.  From my experience, I recommend QLOGIC
for HBA, and I wouldn't think that Linux drivers would make any
difference in performance.  I have not had a single Qlogic HBA error or
failure since I set mine up 2 years ago.

Rod Hurley
Network Administrator
Tenaska Marketing Ventures
ph:  402-758-6187
cell: 402-981-9561
fx:   402-758-6275
rhurley at tmvgas.com


>>> bbrush at unlnotes.unl.edu 8/25/2004 10:23:46 AM >>>

I haven't done Linux on my SAN yet, but it's on my todo list.

olug-bounces at olug.org wrote on 08/25/2004 10:15:44 AM:

> Hello,
>
> Is anyone here doing Fibre Channel on Linux?  I'm looking at
interfacing
a
> Compaq Proliant server to an EMC SAN and am wondering what kind of
results
> I am going to get.  Items that would be helpful:
>
> 1.  HBA you have experience with that work well.

Use whatever is recommended by your vendor.  We use QLogic boards here,
but
FC is kind of picky and you don't want to get too far from the vendor
recommendations or you can wind up paying for it.  FC is not as mature
as
SCSI or IDE and fiber optic lines are not as forgiving as UTP CAT5 so
you
want to make sure the physical layer is solid.

> 2.  Distribution support (Red Hat Enterprise 3 ES was my leaning)

No idea.  Any distro that has support for your HBA should work.

> 3.  General stability.

Stability in this case is the same as any other situation given the
OS.
The only added wrinkle is that your disk sub-system is now much bigger
and
therefore you have more points of failure in that sub-system.

> 4.  Tools used to manage, expand, etc.

If you're talking about the SAN management, use whatever the vendor
provides.  If you're talking about the HBA, it's managed in the BIOS. 
At
the OS level the SAN disks are just going to look like any normal HD.

The big question mark is the HBA support.  Once you have that the rest
is
easy.

Bill

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