Cleanur wrote:
Peer Persistence replication is also supported by HP over RCIP, it's still uniform access though so you still require a stretch fabric for the hosts.
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From memory though even then you're going to need the additional HBA, as the remote standby FC target ports should be on separate physical ports to the active ports attached to the local ESX nodes. I believe this was a recommendation due to a VMware limitation, but will see if I can confirm later using some notes I took. If that is still the case even using RCIP you'd end up with only a single port per node per site for local production.
Confirmed above is incorrect info based on a rather vague statement in the RC guide, you should use the same N:S:P on each array. So if you use RCIP for repliation (note same max latency figures apply) you will still have 4 x FC ports available per site to host ESX.
I've had it confirmed several times now that rcip is NOT supported for peer persistence. There is a doc that lists the remote copy requirements for pp that incorrectly lists rcip in there, but it's referring to synchronous rep in general rather than for pp.
I've investigated this fully in the uk, and the official word from HP was that they would only support it for FC, they admitted the docs were a little misleading but currently it's only FC.
So you will definitely need the 4 port FC card for any pp installations.