Common Isilon Front End Deployment Best Practices Guide
Common Isilon Front End Deployment Best Practices Guide
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Dell believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.
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Table of contents
1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................5
1.1 Typographical conventions .................................................................................................................................7
1.2 Attachments ........................................................................................................................................................7
2 Hardware overview .......................................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Dell EMC Networking S3048-ON .......................................................................................................................8
2.2 Dell EMC Networking S4048-ON .......................................................................................................................8
2.3 Dell EMC Networking Z9100-ON........................................................................................................................8
2.4 Dell EMC PowerEdge R730xd ...........................................................................................................................8
2.5 Dell EMC PowerEdge R640 ...............................................................................................................................9
2.6 Isilon X210 ..........................................................................................................................................................9
3 Management...............................................................................................................................................................10
4 Leaf-spine overview ...................................................................................................................................................11
4.1 Design considerations ......................................................................................................................................11
4.2 Oversubscription ...............................................................................................................................................12
4.3 Scaling ..............................................................................................................................................................13
4.4 Layer 3 leaf-spine topology ..............................................................................................................................14
4.5 Layer 2 leaf-spine topology ..............................................................................................................................15
5 Layer 3 Topology preparation ....................................................................................................................................16
5.1 BGP ASN configuration ....................................................................................................................................16
5.2 Loopback addresses ........................................................................................................................................16
5.3 Point-to-point interfaces ....................................................................................................................................17
6 Configuration of Layer 3 Topology .............................................................................................................................19
6.1 Configuration of Z9100-ON OS10EE Spine Switches......................................................................................19
6.2 Configuration of S4048-ON OS10EE Leaf Switches........................................................................................23
6.3 Configuration of S4048-ON OS9 Leaf Switches ..............................................................................................32
7 Configuration of Layer 2 Topology .............................................................................................................................41
7.1 Configuration of Z9100-ON OS10EE Spine Switches......................................................................................41
7.2 Configuration of S4048-ON OS10EE Leaf Switches........................................................................................45
7.3 Configuration of S4048-ON OS9 Leaf Switches ..............................................................................................50
8 Validation ....................................................................................................................................................................58
8.1 OS10EE Validation commands ........................................................................................................................58
8.2 OS9 Validation commands ...............................................................................................................................63
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9 Isilon configuration .....................................................................................................................................................67
9.1 Building the cluster ...........................................................................................................................................67
9.2 Configuring LACP to each node .......................................................................................................................69
9.3 Configuring SMB share ....................................................................................................................................72
9.4 Setting up DNS for SmartConnect ....................................................................................................................73
9.5 Validation ..........................................................................................................................................................74
A Validated hardware and components .........................................................................................................................76
A.1 Dell EMC Networking Switches ........................................................................................................................76
A.2 Dell EMC Isilon Array .......................................................................................................................................76
A.3 Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers .........................................................................................................................76
B Product Manuals and technical guides ......................................................................................................................77
C Support and feedback ................................................................................................................................................78
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1 Introduction
Dell EMC Isilon is the leading scale-out network-attached storage (NAS) platform and offers the right blend of
performance and capacity to support a wide range of unstructured data workloads including high-performance
computing (HPC), file shares, home directories, archives, media content, video surveillance, and in-place data
analytics. Isilon offers all-flash, hybrid, and archive storage systems that can be combined into a single
cluster. All Isilon models are powered by the Isilon OneFS operating system. With its modular hardware
design, Isilon solutions scale easily from tens of terabytes to tens of petabytes in a single cluster.
The OneFS operating system uses a single volume, single namespace, single file system architecture,
making Isilon storage systems simple to install, manage and scale. And with automated, policy-based
management options including data protection, replication, load-balancing, storage tiering and cloud
integration, Isilon solutions remain simple to manage no matter how large the data environment becomes.
All nodes work together as peers in the cluster, leaving no single point of failure. As nodes are added, OneFS
expands dynamically and redistributes data, eliminating the work of partitioning disks and creating volumes.
Additionally, OneFS ensures that the workloads are dynamically reassigned when a failure occurs. This is
achieved using the OneFS SmartConnect feature.
The Isilon Scale-out NAS utilizes Dell EMC Networking ethernet switches to provide the network. Dell EMC
Networking OS9 and the new OS10 Enterprise Edition (OS10EE) are used in the provided examples.
OS10EE is a disaggregated native Linux-based network operating system that has a fully disaggregated
software architecture. OS10EE decouples the base software from the Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocol stack and
services, which brings forth the ability for open programmability and portability. This allows for greater
utilization of Dell EMC’s Open Networking, in this guide we will utilize Dell EMC Networking operating
systems.
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However, Dell EMC Networking's legacy OS9 is still prevalent in the industry and supported on a large cross-
section of the currently-shipping portfolio. This document encompasses the use of both operating systems
within the same network architecture.
The Dell EMC S4048-ON will be used as leaf switches, and the Dell EMC Z9100-ON will be used in this guide
as a spine switch. The Dell EMC S3048-ON will be used as a management switch for the iDRAC
connections, out-of-band switch management, as well as the external Isilon connections. Z9100-ON and
S4048-ON leaf pair in rack 1 will utilize Dell EMC Networking OS10EE whereas the S3048-ON and S4048-
ON leaf pair in rack 2 will utilize OS9.
This guide will demonstrate how to utilize Dell EMC Networking, Dell EMC PowerEdge R730xd servers, and
the flexibility of Dell EMC Isilon OneFS in two separate topologies. The examples provided will be using the
Isilon X210. However, all Isilon storage systems utilize OneFS. This allows the steps outlined in this guide to
be used regardless of the hardware that is available.
The first example will highlight the benefits of using the dynamic routing protocol Border Gateway Protocol
(BGP) in a leaf/spine environment. This will be followed up with an example that displays the configuration
and benefits of a layer 2 leaf/spine topology.
While the steps in this document were validated using the specified Dell EMC Networking switches and
operating system(s), they may be leveraged for other Dell EMC Networking switch models utilizing the same
networking OS version or later assuming the switch has the available port numbers, speeds, and types.
Note: For more specific details on deploying a spine-leaf architecture using Dell EMC Networking see Dell
EMC Leaf-Spine Deployment Guide and Dell EMC Networking L3 Design for Leaf-Spine with OS10EE for
more information.
In addition to covering the details of the network configuration, specific configurations within OneFS will be
discussed. The focus will be on the front-end networking configurations, the back-end network that Isilon
utilizes is beyond the scope of this guide. The main configurations discussed within Isilon's OneFS will be as
follows:
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1.1 Typographical conventions
The CLI and GUI examples in this document use the following conventions:
Underlined Monospace Text CLI examples that wrap the page. This text is entered as a single
command.
1.2 Attachments
This .pdf includes switch configuration file attachments. To access attachments in Adobe Acrobat Reader,
click the icon in the left pane halfway down the page, then click the icon.
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2 Hardware overview
This section briefly describes the hardware used to validate the deployment example in this guide. Appendix
A contains a complete listing of hardware and components.
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Dell EMC PowerEdge R730xd
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3 Management
The S3048-ON is used as a Top of Rack (ToR) switch, that aggregates all of the management connections.
Each switch has a connection from the out-of-band (OOB) management port to the ToR, as well as each
Isilon Node and PowerEdge server. The first Isilon node management connections are shown, each
additional node is cabled similarly. This can be seen in Figure 9 below, all equipment in other racks is
configured in a similar fashion.
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4 Leaf-spine overview
The connections between leaf and spine switches can be layer 2 (switched) or layer 3 (routed). The terms
“layer 3 topology” and “layer 2 topology” in this guide refer to these connections. In both topologies,
downstream connections to servers, storage and other endpoint devices within the racks are layer 2 and
connections to external networks are layer 3.
The layer 2 and layer 3 topologies each use two leaf switches at the top of each rack configured as a Virtual
Link Trunking (VLT) pair. VLT allows all connections to be active while also providing fault tolerance. As
administrators add racks to the data center, two leaf switches configured for VLT are added to each new rack.
The total number of leaf-spine connections is equal to the number of leaf switches multiplied by the number of
spine switches. The bandwidth of the fabric may be increased by adding connections between the leaf and
spine layer as long as the spine layer has the capacity for the additional connections.
Leaf-Spine architecture
• For each VLAN, the layer 2 topology creates one large broadcast domain across the fabric. The layer
3 topology has the benefit of containing broadcast domains to each rack.
• The layer 2 topology is limited to 4094 VLANs across the fabric. The layer 3 topology allows up to
4094 VLANs per rack.
• The layer 2 topology is limited to two physical switches at the spine layer (configured as VLT peers).
In a layer 3 topology, additional spines may be added as needed to provide additional paths and
bandwidth. Therefore, a layer 3 topology is more scalable and is better suited for very large networks.
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• If none of the layer 2 limitations are a concern, it may ultimately come down to a matter of preference.
This guide provides examples of both topologies.
In addition to the considerations for the L2 topology, some options need to be considered in the L3 topology.
The primary design choice will be in the dynamic routing protocol that best fits the environment. BGP may be
selected for scalability and is well suited for very large networks, while OSPF is an interior gateway protocol
that provides routing inside an autonomous network. OSPF routers send link-state advertisements to all other
routers within the same autonomous system areas. This generally causes more memory and CPU usage than
BGP. However, OSPF may offer faster convergence. OSPF is often used in smaller networks.
4.2 Oversubscription
Oversubscription is equal to the total amount of bandwidth available to all servers connected to a leaf switch
divided by the amount of uplink bandwidth. In a leaf-spine network, oversubscription occurs at the leaf layer.
Other configurations are using available servers, storage and leaf switches that also could be used to manage
the subscription rates. The following are examples of oversubscription ratios based on downlink/uplink
bandwidth.
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10GbE 38 380GbE 2 100GbE 80GbE 380/200 1.900 : 1
4.3 Scaling
An example of scaling this solution in a two-tier leaf-spine is a configuration of up to 16 racks. The Dell/EMC
Z9100-ON has thirty-two 40/100GbE interfaces that would support 16 leaf pairs using VLT. This provides one
rack that contains WAN-edge connectivity and 15 racks for servers and storage nodes. Each rack of the
compute/storage rack holding a combination of up to 19 PowerEdge R730’s or Isilon X210’s.
This particular example, each R730 has four 10GbE uplinks, and each Isilon node has four 10GbE uplinks
with 19 servers/nodes per rack. Additionally, the example architecture has four spine switches to minimize
oversubscription.
This example provides for an oversubscription rate of 2.375:1 using 40GbE spine connectivity.
Scaling beyond 16 racks would require a three-tier leaf-spine network. The proof-of-concept scaling that
Figure 11 shows allows four 16-rack pods connected using an additional spine layer to scale in excess of
1,000 nodes with the same oversubscription ratio. This scenario requires reducing the number of racks
available per pod to accommodate the uplinks required to connect to the super spine layer.
It is important to understand the port-density of switches used and their feature sets’ impact on the number of
available ports. This directly influences the number of switches necessary for proper scaling.
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Scaling out the existing networking topology
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4.5 Layer 2 leaf-spine topology
In a layer 2 leaf-spine network, traffic between leafs and spines is switched (except for a pair of edge leafs) as
shown in Figure 13. VLT is used for multipathing and load balancing traffic across the layer 2 leaf-spine fabric.
Connections from hosts to leaf switches are also layer 2.
For connections to external networks, layer 3 links are added between the spines and a pair of edge leafs.
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5 Layer 3 Topology preparation
The layer 3 topology used in this example will use external border gateway protocol (eBGP) as well as ECMP.
In order to correctly configure this topology, several things need to be considered and planned.
ASNs should follow a logical pattern for ease of administration and allow for growth as additional leaf and
spine switches are added. In this example, an ASN with a “6” in the hundreds place represents a spine switch
(e.g., 64601), and an ASN with a “7” in the hundreds place represents a leaf switch (e.g., 64701).
Note: The same ASN can be used across all tier-2 spine switches if the growth plans do not require an
additional layer of spine switches.
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10.0.1.1/32 10.0.1.2/32
All loopback addresses used are part of the 10.0.0.0/8 address space with each address using a 32-bit mask.
In this example, the third octet represents the layer, “1” for the spine and “2” for the leaf. The fourth octet is
the counter for the appropriate layer. For example, 10.0.1.1/32 is the first spine switch in the topology while
10.0.2.4/32 is the fourth leaf switch.
All addresses come from the same base IP prefix, 192.168.0.0/16 with the third octet representing the spine
number. For example, 192.168.1.0/31 is a two-host subnet connected to Spine 1 while 192.168.2.0/31 is
connected to Spine 2. This IP scheme is easily extended as leaf and spine switches are added to the
network.
Link labels are provided in the table for quick reference with Figure 16.
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E Leaf 3 Eth1/1/49 .5 192.168.1.4/31 Spine 1 Eth1/1/3 .4
The point-to-point IP addresses used in this guide are shown in Figure 16:
Point-to-point IP addresses
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6 Configuration of Layer 3 Topology
This section will cover the configuration of the layer 3 topology. In the example provided there are three Isilon
nodes connected to each leaf pair as well as two Dell PowerEdge servers that will be consuming the storage.
The connections for the first node are shown in the diagram. Each subsequent node is cabled similarly. The
configurations for all connections are detailed in the following sections. The Isilon nodes will all connect on the
back-end network through two InfiniBand switches, creating one single six node cluster. The Isilon back-end
networking is not covered in this guide.
Layer 3 Topology
Note: The configuration files for every switch in this topology are listed in the attachments section.
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OS10EE Spine
Set the hostname, configure the OOB management interface and default gateway.
Configure the four point-to-point interfaces connected to leaf switches. In this example, each of the
connections from the Z9100-ON spine to the S4048-ON leaf switches needs to have the speed set to 40GbE.
Next, assign IP addresses per Table 3. Configure a loopback interface to be used as the router ID. Isilon’s
OneFS supports and recommends the use of jumbo frames. Each interface used below will be configured
using jumbo frames.
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Z9100-ON Spine 1 Z9100-ON Spine 2
interface breakout 1/1/1 map 40g-1x interface breakout 1/1/1 map 40g-1x
interface breakout 1/1/2 map 40g-1x interface breakout 1/1/2 map 40g-1x
interface breakout 1/1/3 map 40g-1x interface breakout 1/1/3 map 40g-1x
interface breakout 1/1/4 map 40g-1x interface breakout 1/1/4 map 40g-1x
Configure a route map and IP prefix list to redistribute all loopback addresses and leaf networks via BGP.
The command seq 10 permit 10.0.1.0/24 ge 32 includes all addresses in the 10.0.1.0/24 address
range with a mask greater than or equal to 32. This includes all loopback addresses used as router IDs.
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Z9100-ON Spine 1 Z9100-ON Spine 2
ip prefix-list spine-leaf seq 10 permit 10.0.1.0/24 ge ip prefix-list spine-leaf seq 10 permit 10.0.1.0/24 ge
32 32
First, enable eBGP with the router bgp ASN command. The ASN is from Figure 14.
The bgp bestpath as-path multipath-relax command enables ECMP. The maximum-paths ebgp
2 command specifies the maximum number of parallel paths to a destination to add to the routing table. In
this topology, there are two equal cost best paths from a spine to a host, one to each leaf that the host is
connected.
BGP neighbors are configured, and Neighbor fall-over is enabled. Graceful restart enables the data plane to
continue forwarding traffic for a time if the BGP process fails or quits.
BGP hello and hold down timers are set to three and nine seconds, respectively. Neighbor fall-over will trigger
route withdrawal when IP connectivity between BGP peers is lost. The more aggressive timers (default is 60
seconds hello and 180 seconds hold down) are for backup. The advertisement interval is set to one second.
This is to prevent BGP speakers from advertising updates immediately upon receipt. Instead, they will
advertise them in batched intervals of one second. This delay is to prevent overhead.
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Z9100-ON Spine 1 Z9100-ON Spine 2
end end
write memory write memory
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OS10EE Leaf pair
The interfaces for additional Isilon nodes and servers in this example can be found in the following table:
Interface enumeration
Server/Isilon Node Switch Leaf interface
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Server/Isilon Node Switch Leaf interface
First, set the hostname, configure the OOB management interface and default gateway. Enable RSTP as a
precaution against creating a networking loop. S4048-Leaf 1 is configured as the primary RSTP root bridge
using the bridge-priority 0 command. S4048-Leaf 2 is configured as the secondary RSTP root bridge using
the bridge-priority 4096 command. This ensures that leaf 1 will always be the root bridge. The no iscsi
enable command is issued to ensure that iSCSI snooping is disabled.
Configure the VLT interconnect between S4048-Leaf1 and S4048-Leaf2. In this configuration, remove each
interface from layer 2 mode with the no switchport command for interfaces eth 1/1/53-1/1/54. Once this is
done, create the VLT domain, add the backup destination, and add the interfaces participating in VLTi.
Finally, enable VLT peer routing on each switch. Once VLT is enabled, it will dynamically change the MTU
settings for the VLTi to a value of 9216. Isilon’s OneFS supports and recommends the use of jumbo frames.
Note: Refer to Isilon Network Design Considerations for more information on specific protocols as they
relate to OneFS.
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S4048-ON Leaf 1 S4048-ON Leaf 2
Next, the VLANs will be configured. There will be one VLAN for each Isilon subnet; this will also include the
servers in each rack. Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) will be used to as a secondary from of
redundancy. Although VRRP is an active/standby First Hop Redundancy Protocol (FHRP), when combined
with VLT it becomes active/active. The priority is assigned to give predictability of VRRP master. The higher
priority will be elected as the master. If no priority is given, the higher IP address will be elected as the
master.
Note: Further information on all protocols used in this document and their use cases can be found in the
Dell EMC Leaf-Spine Deployment Guide and Dell EMC Networking L3 Design for Leaf-Spine with OS10EE.
Configure the necessary port channels. There will be one port channel for each server as well as a single port
channel for each of the Isilon nodes. Each port channel is assigned an MTU of 9216 to support jumbo
frames, as well configured to allow access to VLAN 100. The vlt-port-channel command enables port
channels on VLT peers to function as a single port channel.
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S4048-ON Leaf 1 S4048-ON Leaf 2
The downstream interfaces will be configured in the next section. Dell recommends asymmetrical flow control
(rx on tx off) on S4048-ON leaf switches which have sufficient egress buffers to reduce packet drops and
resulting retransmissions. This feature should be applied to all host interfaces that support flow control. In
OS10EE this is enabled by default, in OS9 it must be configured. Flow control commands are added below
for reference; however, they are not required in OS10EE.
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S4048-ON Leaf 1 S4048-ON Leaf 2
The two upstream layer 3 interfaces connected to the spine switches are configured. Assign IP addresses per
Table 3. Configure a loopback interface to be used as the router ID. This is used with BGP.
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S4048-ON Leaf 1 S4048-ON Leaf 2
Configure a route map and IP prefix list to redistribute all loopback addresses and leaf networks via BGP.
ip prefix-list spine-leaf seq 10 permit 10.0.2.0/24 ip prefix-list spine-leaf seq 10 permit 10.0.2.0/24 ge
ge 32 32
ip prefix-list spine-leaf seq 20 permit 172.16.0.0/16 ip prefix-list spine-leaf seq 20 permit 172.16.0.0/16
ge 24 ge 24
Uplink Failure Detection (UFD) is configured next. UFD is a feature that shuts down specified downstream
interfaces when all specified uplinks become disabled.
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S4048-ON Leaf 1 S4048-ON Leaf 2
uplink-state-group 1 uplink-state-group 1
enable enable
downstream port-channel1 downstream port-channel1
downstream port-channel3 downstream port-channel3
downstream port-channel5 downstream port-channel5
downstream port-channel101 downstream port-channel101
downstream port-channel102 downstream port-channel102
upstream ethernet1/1/49 upstream ethernet1/1/49
upstream ethernet1/1/50 upstream ethernet1/1/50
First, enable eBGP with the router bgp ASN command. The ASN is from Figure 14.
The bgp bestpath as-path multipath-relax enables ECMP. The maximum-paths ebgp 2
command specifies the maximum number of parallel paths to a destination to add to the routing table. In this
topology, there are two equal cost best paths from a spine to a host, one to each leaf that the host is
connected.
BGP neighbors are configured, and Neighbor fall-over is enabled. Graceful restart enables the data plane to
continue forwarding traffic for a time if the BGP process fails or quits.
BGP hello and hold down timers are set to three and nine seconds, respectively. Neighbor fall-over will trigger
route withdrawal when IP connectivity between BGP peers is lost. The more aggressive timers (default is 60
seconds hello and 180 seconds hold down) are for backup. The advertisement interval is set to one second.
This is to prevent BGP speakers from advertising updates immediately upon receipt. Instead, they will
advertise them in batched intervals of one second. This delay is to prevent overhead.
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S4048-ON Leaf 1 S4048-ON Leaf 2
end end
write memory write memory
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6.3 Configuration of S4048-ON OS9 Leaf Switches
Configurations in this section cover leaf switches 3 and 4 running OS9 as seen in Figure 20.
The ports for additional Isilon nodes and servers in this example can be found in the following table:
Interface enumeration
Server/Isilon Node Switch Leaf interface
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Server/Isilon Node Switch Leaf interface
First, set the hostname, configure the OOB management interface and default gateway. Next, enable LLDP
as well as RSTP. In OS10EE LLDP is enabled by default, in OS9 it must be enabled. S4048-Leaf 3 is
configured as the primary RSTP root bridge using the bridge-priority 0 command. S4048-Leaf 4 is configured
as the secondary RSTP root bridge using the bridge-priority 4096 command. This ensures that leaf 3 will
always be the root bridge.
Configure the VLT interconnect between S4048-Leaf3 and S4048-Leaf4. Create a static port channel and
add the two VLTi connections to port channel 128. Configure the VLT domain using the IP address assigned
to the management interface of the opposing switch as the backup destination. The backup destination is
only utilized for the VLT heartbeat. Once VLT is enabled, it will dynamically change the MTU settings for the
VLTi to a value of 9216.
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S4048-ON Leaf 3 S4048-ON Leaf 4
The downstream interfaces will be configured in the next section. Dell recommends asymmetrical flow control
(rx on tx off) on S4048-ON leaf switches which have sufficient egress buffers to reduce packet drops and
resulting retransmissions. This feature should be applied on all host interfaces that support flow control. In
OS10EE this is enabled by default, in OS9 it must be configured. Flow Control is configured with the
flowcontrol rx on tx off command.
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S4048-ON Leaf 3 S4048-ON Leaf 4
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If the S4048-ON running OS9 is used for the first leaf pair the interfaces for the first Isilon node need to be left
out of the port channel to facilitate the configuration of the LACP connections in OneFS. In this example that
would be tengigabitethernet 1/1 on both switches. The configuration would be as follows for that example:
interface vlan200
no shutdown
mtu 9216
ip address 172.16.2.252/24
untagged port-channel 3,5,101,102
untagged interface te 1/1
Configure the necessary port channels. There will be one port channel for each server as well as a single port
channel for each of the Isilon nodes. Each port channel is assigned an MTU of 9216 to support jumbo frames.
The vlt-port-channel # command enables port channels on VLT peers to function as a single port
channel.
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S4048-ON Leaf 3 S4048-ON Leaf 4
Next, the VLANs will be created. There will be one VLAN for each Isilon subnet; this will also include the
servers in each rack. Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) will be used as a secondary from of
redundancy. VRRP becomes active/active with the use of VLT over the standard active/passive. The priority
is assigned to give predictability to the VRRP master.
Note: In this example, Server 3’s NIC is configured as an LACP NIC team. It is assigned the IP address
172.16.2.240/24. Server 3’s default gateway is configured as 172.16.2.254/24. The virtual address assigned
to the VRRP group will provide fault tolerance if either leaf goes offline.
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S4048-ON Leaf 3 S4048-ON Leaf 4
The two upstream layer 3 interfaces connected to the spine switches are configured. Assign IP addresses per
Table 3. Configure a loopback interface to be used as the router ID. This is used with BGP.
Configure a route map and IP prefix-list to redistribute all loopback addresses and leaf networks via BGP.
The command seq 10 permit 10.0.2.0/24 ge 32 includes all addresses in the 10.0.2.0/24 address
range with a mask greater than or equal to 32. This includes all loopback addresses used as router IDs.
The command seq 20 permit 172.16.0.0/16 ge 24 includes the 172.16.1.0/24 network used on
Leafs 1 and 2 as shown in Figure 14.
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S4048-ON Leaf 3 S4048-ON Leaf 4
Include the point-to-point interfaces to each leaf pair in an ECMP group. Enable link bundle monitoring to
report when traffic is unevenly distributed across multiple links.
ecmp-group 1 ecmp-group 1
interface fortyGigE 1/49 interface fortyGigE 1/49
interface fortyGigE 1/50 interface fortyGigE 1/50
link-bundle-monitor enable link-bundle-monitor enable
Uplink Failure Detection (UFD) is configured next. UFD shuts down all downstream interfaces if all uplinks
fail.
uplink-state-group 1 uplink-state-group 1
downstream port-channel1 downstream port-channel1
downstream port-channel3 downstream port-channel3
downstream port-channel5 downstream port-channel5
downstream port-channel101 downstream port-channel101
downstream port-channel102 downstream port-channel102
upstream fortyGigE 1/49 upstream fortyGigE 1/49
upstream fortyGigE 1/50 upstream fortyGigE 1/50
First, enable BGP with the router bgp ASN command. The ASN is from Figure 14.
The bgp bestpath as-path multipath-relax enables ECMP. The maximum-paths ebgp 2
command specifies the maximum number of parallel paths to a destination to add to the routing table. This
number should be equal to or greater than the number of spines, up to 64.
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BGP neighbors are configured, and fast fall-over is enabled.
Finally, exit configuration mode and save the configuration with the end and write commands.
end end
write memory write memory
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7 Configuration of Layer 2 Topology
This section will cover the configuration of the layer 2 topology. In the example provided there are three Isilon
nodes connected to each leaf pair as well as two Dell PowerEdge servers that will be consuming the storage.
The connections from the spine switches to the OS10EE leaf pair will be configured in port channel 49, while
the connections to the OS9 leaf pair will be configured in port channel 50. The two spine switches will be
configured in a VLT. The benefits and draw backs of a L2 configuration were referenced in Chapter 4.1. The
Isilon nodes will all connect to each switch in the leaf pair using an LACP port channel for each node, the
connections for the Windows servers will be similarly configured. Also, each Isilon Node will be connected on
the back-end network through two InfiniBand switches, creating one single six node cluster.
L2 topology
Note: The configuration files for every switch in this topology are listed in the attachments section.
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OS10EE Spine
Set the hostname, configure the OOB management interface and default gateway. Additionally, with the
spine switches configured in a VLT pair, RSTP will be configured at the spine layer. The priority for RSTP will
be set on each spine switch. This ensures that the root bridge will always be one of the spine switches.
First, configure the VLT on each spine switch. Once VLT is enabled, it will dynamically change the MTU
settings for the VLTi to a value of 9216.
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Z9100-ON Spine 1 Z9100-ON Spine 2
Next, configure the required VLANs on each spine switch. There will be one VLAN assigned for each of the
subnets that will be defined as seen in Figure 21. VRRP will be used to ensure availability in the event of a
switch failure. The priority is set to 150 on spine 1 to ensure that it will be the VRRP master.
Configure the port channels between the spine and leaf switches. There will be four connections from each
spine to the leaf switches. Port channel 49 will be configured on the OS10EE leaf pair, and port channel 50
will be configured on the OS9 leaf pair. Also, the downstream switches are S4048-ON switches with 40 GbE
uplinks. Each of the connections from the Z9100-ON spines to the S4048-ON leaf switches needs to have
the speed set to 40GbE.
interface breakout 1/1/1 map 40g-1x interface breakout 1/1/1 map 40g-1x
interface breakout 1/1/2 map 40g-1x interface breakout 1/1/2 map 40g-1x
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Z9100-ON Spine 1 Z9100-ON Spine 2
interface breakout 1/1/3 map 40g-1x interface breakout 1/1/3 map 40g-1x
interface breakout 1/1/4 map 40g-1x interface breakout 1/1/4 map 40g-1x
end end
write memory write memory
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Finally, exit configuration mode and save the configuration.
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The interfaces for additional Isilon nodes and servers in this example can be found in the following table:
Interface enumeration
Server/Isilon Node Switch Leaf interface
First, set the hostname, configure the OOB management interface and default gateway. Enable RSTP as a
precaution for network loops. The RSTP priority has been set at the spine layer; each leaf switch will be left
at the default value for RSTP. The no iscsi enable command is issued to ensure that iSCSI snooping is
disabled.
Configure the VLT interconnect between S4048-Leaf1 and S4048-Leaf2. In this configuration, remove each
interface from layer 2 mode with the no switchport command for interfaces eth 1/1/53-1/1/54. Once this is
done, enter the VLT domain, add the backup destination, and add the interfaces participating in VLTi. Finally,
enable VLT peer routing on each switch. Once VLT is enabled, it will dynamically change the MTU settings
for the VLTi to a value of 9216. Isilon’s OneFS supports and recommends the use of jumbo frames.
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Note: Refer to Isilon Network Design Considerations for more information on specific protocols as they
relate to OneFS.
Next, we will create the VLANs. IP addresses and VRRP is configured at the spine layer. On each leaf
switch, the respective VLAN will be defined without an IP address or VRRP.
Configure the downstream port channels. There will be one port channel for each server as well as a single
port channel for each of the Isilon nodes. Each port channel is assigned an MTU of 9216 to support jumbo
frames, as well configured to allow access to VLAN 100. The vlt-port-channel # command enables
port channels on VLT peers to function as a single port channel.
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S4048-ON Leaf 1 S4048-ON Leaf 2
The downstream interfaces will be configured in the next section. Dell recommends asymmetrical flow control
(rx on tx off) on S4048-ON leaf switches which have sufficient egress buffers to reduce packet drops and
resulting retransmissions. This feature should be applied on all host interfaces that support flow control. In
OS10EE this is enabled by default, in OS9 it must be configured. Flow control commands are added below
for reference; however, they are not required in OS10EE.
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S4048-ON Leaf 1 S4048-ON Leaf 2
Next, Configure the upstream port channels as well as the corresponding interfaces.
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S4048-ON Leaf 1 S4048-ON Leaf 2
Uplink Failure Detection (UFD) is configured next. UFD is a feature that shuts down specified downstream
interfaces when all specified uplinks become disabled.
uplink-state-group 1 uplink-state-group 1
enable enable
downstream port-channel1 downstream port-channel1
downstream port-channel3 downstream port-channel3
downstream port-channel5 downstream port-channel5
downstream port-channel101 downstream port-channel101
downstream port-channel102 downstream port-channel102
upstream port-channel49 upstream port-channel49
end end
write memory write memory
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OS9 Leaf pair
The ports for additional Isilon nodes and servers in this example can be found in the following table:
Interface enumeration
Server/Isilon Node Switch Leaf interface
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Server/Isilon Node Switch Leaf interface
First, set the hostname, configure the OOB management interface and default gateway. Next, enable LLDP
as well as RSTP. In OS10EE, LLDP is enabled by default, in OS9, it must be enabled.
Configure the VLT interconnect between S4048-Leaf3 and S4048-Leaf4. Create a static port channel and
add the two VLTi connections to port channel 128. Configure the VLT domain using the management
interface of the peer switch as the backup destination. The backup destination is only utilized for the VLT
heartbeat. The unit-id # command will designate the primary VLT member. Once VLT is enabled, it will
dynamically change the MTU settings for the VLTi to a value of 9216. Isilon’s OneFS supports and
recommends the use of jumbo frames.
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S4048-ON Leaf 3 S4048-ON Leaf 4
Note: When port channel 128 is added to the vlt domain the MTU setting is automatically changed to 9216.
The downstream interfaces will be configured in the next section. Dell recommends asymmetrical flow control
(rx on tx off) on S4048-ON leaf switches which have sufficient egress buffers to reduce packet drops and
resulting retransmissions. This feature should be applied on all host interfaces that support flow control. In
OS10EE this is enabled by default, in OS9 it must be configured. Flow Control is configured with the
flowcontrol rx on tx off command.
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S4048-ON Leaf 3 S4048-ON Leaf 4
Configure the necessary downstream port channels. There will be one port channel for each server as well as
a single port channel for each of the Isilon nodes. Each port channel is assigned an MTU of 9216 to support
jumbo frames. The vlt-peer-lag-port-channel # command ensures that each switch in the VLT is
aware of all port channels and can act accordingly in the event of a switch failure.
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S4048-ON Leaf 3 S4048-ON Leaf 4
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The upstream interfaces and port channels will be configured as follows:
Next, we will create the VLANs. There will be one VLAN for each Isilon subnet; this will also include the
servers in each rack.
Uplink Failure Detection (UFD) is configured next. UFD shuts down all downstream interfaces if all uplinks
fail.
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S4048-ON Leaf 3 S4048-ON Leaf 4
uplink-state-group 1 uplink-state-group 1
downstream port-channel1 downstream port-channel1
downstream port-channel3 downstream port-channel3
downstream port-channel5 downstream port-channel5
downstream port-channel101 downstream port-channel101
downstream port-channel102 downstream port-channel102
upstream port-channel 50 upstream port-channel 50
end end
write memory write memory
Finally, exit configuration mode and save the configuration with the end and write commands.
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8 Validation
In addition to sending traffic between hosts, the configuration shown in both topologies can be validated with
the commands shown in this section. The validation for the layer 2 topology will only reference sections 8.1.3
– 8.1.9 for OS10EE and sections 8.2.3 – 8.2.8 for OS9.
Note: For more information on commands and output, see the Command Line Reference Guide for the
applicable switch (links to documentation are provided in Appendix B.
Command and output examples are provided for one spine and one leaf. The OS9 section will only cover the
validation of a single leaf as the spine layer is running OS10EE. Command output on other switches is similar.
Command and output examples are provided for one spine and one leaf. Command output on other switches
is similar.
The first set of routes with a subnet mask of /32 are the IPs configured for router IDs.
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S4048-Leaf1 has two paths to all other leafs and two paths to Server 3’s network, 172.16.2.0. There is one
path through each spine. If all paths do not appear, make sure the maximum-paths statement in the BGP
configuration is equal to or greater than the number of spines in the topology.
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B EX 172.16.2.0/24 via 192.168.1.0 20/0 01:00:11
via 192.168.2.0
Note: The command show ip route <cr> can also be used to verify the information above as well as
static routes and direct connections.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 port-channel1 up 1 1
* 2 port-channel1 up 1 1
vlt-port-channel ID : 3
VLT Unit ID Port-Channel Status Configured ports Active ports
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 port-channel3 up 1 1
* 2 port-channel3 up 1 1
vlt-port-channel ID : 5
VLT Unit ID Port-Channel Status Configured ports Active ports
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 port-channel5 up 1 1
* 2 port-channel5 up 1 1
vlt-port-channel ID : 101
VLT Unit ID Port-Channel Status Configured ports Active ports
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 port-channel101 up 1 1
* 2 port-channel101 up 1 1
vlt-port-channel ID : 102
VLT Unit ID Port-Channel Status Configured ports Active ports
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 port-channel102 up 1 1
* 2 port-channel102 up 1 1
VLAN mismatch:
No mismatch
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Uplink State Group: 1, Status: Enabled,up
If an interface happens to be disabled by UFD, the show uplink-state-group command output will
appear as follows:
Note: When an interface has been disabled by UFD, the show interfaces interface command for affected
interfaces indicates it is error-disabled as follows:
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port-channel101 Desg 128.2617 128 1000 FWD 0 AUTO Yes
port-channel102 Desg 128.2618 128 1000 FWD 0 AUTO Yes
--- Output is truncated ---
The first set of routes with a subnet mask of /32 are the IPs configured for router IDs.
S4048-Leaf3 has two paths to all other leafs and two paths to Server 1’s network, 172.16.1.0. There is one
path through each spine. If all paths do not appear, make sure the maximum-paths statement in the BGP
configuration is equal to or greater than the number of spines in the topology.
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S4048-Leaf3#show ip route bgp
Destination Gateway Dist/Metric Last Change
----------- ------- ----------- -----------
B EX 10.0.1.1/32 via 192.168.1.4 20/0 00:21:22
B EX 10.0.1.2/32 via 192.168.2.4 20/0 00:21:22
B EX 10.0.2.1/32 via 192.168.1.4 20/0 00:21:22
via 192.168.2.4
B EX 10.0.2.2/32 via 192.168.1.4 20/0 00:21:22
via 192.168.2.4
B EX 10.0.2.4/32 via 192.168.1.4 20/0 00:20:27
via 192.168.2.4
B EX 172.16.1.0/24 via 192.168.1.4 20/0 00:21:22
via 192.168.2.4
Note: The command show ip route <cr> can also be used to verify the information above as well as
static routes and direct connections.
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8.2.4 Show VLT detail
This command is used to validate VLT LAG status on leaf switches in this topology. This command shows the
status and active VLANs of all VLT LAGs. The local and peer status must both be up.
S4048-Leaf3#show uplink-state-group 1
If an interface happens to be disabled by UFD, the show uplink-state-group command output will appear as
follows:
When an interface or prort-channel has been disabled by UFD, the show port-channel value command
for affected interfaces indicates it is error-disabled as follows:
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S4048-Leaf3#show spanning-tree rstp brief
Executing IEEE compatible Spanning Tree Protocol
Root ID Priority 0, Address f48e.382e.a0f7
Root Bridge hello time 2, max age 20, forward delay 15
Bridge ID Priority 0, Address f48e.382e.a0f7
We are the root
Configured hello time 2, max age 20, forward delay 15
Interface Designated
Name PortID Prio Cost Sts Cost Bridge ID PortID
---------- -------- ---- ----- ----------- ------- -------------------- --------
Po 1 128.2 128 1800 FWD(vlt) 0 0 f48e.382e.a0f7 128.2
Po 3 128.4 128 1800 FWD(vlt) 0 0 f48e.382e.a0f7 128.4
Po 5 128.6 128 1800 FWD(vlt) 0 0 f48e.382e.a0f7 128.6
Po 101 128.102 128 1800 FWD(vlt) 0 0 f48e.382e.a0f7 128.102
Po 102 128.103 128 1800 FWD(vlt) 0 0 f48e.382e.a0f7 128.103
Po 128 128.129 128 600 FWD(vltI) 0 0 f48e.382e.a0f7 128.129
Interface
Name Role PortID Prio Cost Sts Cost Link-type Edge
---------- ------ -------- ---- ------- ----------- ------- --------- ----
Po 1 Desg 128.2 128 1800 FWD 0 (vlt) P2P Yes
Po 3 Desg 128.4 128 1800 FWD 0 (vlt) P2P Yes
Po 5 Desq 128.6 128 1800 FWD 0 (vlt) P2P Yes
Po 101 Desg 128.102 128 1800 FWD 0 (vlt) P2P Yes
Po 102 Desg 128.103 128 1800 FWD 0 (vlt) P2P Yes
Po 128 Desg 128.129 128 600 FWD 0 (vltI)P2P No
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9 Isilon configuration
The following section outlines the steps necessary to add the Isilon X210 nodes into a cluster, setup a
functioning SMB share, designate a secondary subnet, and configure the SmartConnect feature in OneFS.
The following table outlines the configurations that were made in this example. The following configurations
will be made in this section:
The 10gige-1 and 10gige-2 interfaces for user connectivity will be configured in the next section.
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Parameter Value
MTU 1500
Note: Additional information and configuration for SmartConnect will be provided in Section 9.5.
When the first node is configured, and the cluster has been created, the other nodes can then be added into
the cluster. All nodes will be able to discover the cluster over the back-end network. The assorted options for
back-end networking and Isilon are not covered in this document, for more information on the back-end
network refer to Isilon documentation.
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Join cluster
1. Navigate to a web page and use the first IP address in the range defined for the ext-1 interface,
https://100.67.170.140:8080. This will bring you to the first node in the cluster.
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2. After successfully logging into the OneFS web GUI, navigate to Cluster Management > Network
Configuration. This will allow changes to the network configuration.
3. Select the More option next to groupnet0, and Add subnet. Define values for the next two subnets.
Refer to Table 9.
Subnet Configurations
Parameter Value
Netmask 255.255.255.0
Netmask 255.255.255.0
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LACP configuration
The next section will cover the configuration of static routes within OneFS. This is necessary to enable traffic
to cross between the two subnets.
Parameter Value
Subnet 172.16.2.0
Netmask 255.255.255.0
Gateway 172.16.1.254
Parameter Value
Subnet 172.16.1.0
Netmask 255.255.255.0
Gateway 172.16.2.254
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Static Routes
In addition to the Isilon nodes, each Windows server is configured in an LACP NIC team that utilizes the
address hash setting. The specific configuration steps for a Windows NIC team can be found in Microsoft’s
documentation, Create a New NIC Team on a Host Computer or VM.
1. From the OneFS GUI select File System > File System Explorer.
2. Select Create Directory.
3. Define the directory name, “SMB,” as well as the user, group, and permission settings as shown.
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Directory creation
4. Once the folder has been created, click the SMB folder.
5. Once again create a directory and assign the name, “Engineering,” user, group, and permissions
settings.
6. When both folders have been created, navigate to the Protocols > Windows Sharing (SMB).
7. Select Create an SMB Share.
8. Assign a name, “Engineering SMB,” use the Browse button to navigate to the Engineering folder
that was created previously.
9. Select the member's window and assign access permissions.
10. All other selections were left at the default values.
11. Click Create Share.
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Note: Refer to Microsoft's DNS Resource Record Management for the specific steps in creating a DNS
server.
2. Navigate to Server Manager > Tools > DNS and configure the following:
DNS parameters
Parameter Value
It is important that the DNS Host A record have a unique name that does not match the name that was
assigned to the SmartConnect zone within the OneFS file system. The Delegation zone, however, needs to
have a name that matches the SmartConnect zone. This will ensure that a connection to sczone1.dell.local
will reference the SmartConnect Zone 1 IP of 172.16.1.249. When this IP is referenced, it will round robin
through each node IP, assigning the workload to each node in turn, ensuring a balanced workload.
9.5 Validation
At this point in the configuration, the file system and the network can be validated. This can be accomplished
by selecting a server on one leaf pair and connecting to the file system assigned to the opposite subnet.
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Validation
1. Login to Server 01 and issue a Run command of \\sczone2.dell.local. This will bring up the folder
structure that was created in the OneFS file system.
2. Create a file or a folder in order to verify read/write permissions.
3. Login to Server04 and issue the Run command \\sczone1.dell.local. This will display the same
folder, and the previously created files will be present.
In addition to accessing the files on the opposite subnet, a test should be done to ensure that each server can
access the files through the local subnet. Example: Server01 to \\sczone1.dell.local.
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A Validated hardware and components
The following tables list the hardware and components used to configure and validate the example
configurations in this guide.
2 Z9100-ON OS 10.4.0 R3
2 S4048-ON OS 10.4.0 R3
BIOS 2.5.5
iDRAC 2.50.50.50
BIOS 1.2.11
iDRAC 3.15.17.15
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B Product Manuals and technical guides
Isilon OneFS
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C Support and feedback
Contacting Technical Support
We encourage readers to provide feedback on the quality and usefulness of this publication by sending an
email to [email protected].
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