Direct attach to 3PAR fiber ports

[jbguy]

Good afternoon all.

We have a 3PAR at a remote site that right now just receives remote copy replication. This is all fine and dandy except we have no real method to access anything on the volumes since its not attached to anything on site. Can the fiber ports be directly connect to a server? Has anyone else experienced similar and found a way to do it? Im hoping to avoid any additional equipment cost if possible.

[MammaGutt]

Yes you can, but you quickly run out of ports.

[ailean]

Yes it's possible, we've done it with a basic 8200 box, two hosts directly attached and that's all the FC ports used.

Just make sure each host is connected to at least one Node pair so upgrades and maintenance can be done online (if required).

[jbguy]

Thanks for the feedback. We have no real need to hook up more than just one server since this is essentially a small server closet at a branch and its only purpose overall would be to recovery if our primary and secondary sites were dead. The question came up when trying to brainstorm what an auditor might ask regarding how we could access the data.

So for connecting them its simply connect the fiber and detecting it? Any special config on the 3Par itself? I haven't done fiber except through a switch so im not sure what might be different for a direct connect.

Thanks everyone.

[ailean]

The HPE 3PAR host OS guide should have the details for direct attach, I think they don't support everything direct that can be used via switches (e.g. HBA models), the SPOCK website has details of what is.

Basically if it is supported then port needs to be Host mode and either Loop or Point depending on the combination of 3PAR version plus 3PAR and Host HBA speeds (there's a table in the OS guide).