Networking Guide For PowerStore X Models
Networking Guide For PowerStore X Models
May 2023
Rev. A04
Notes, cautions, and warnings
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product.
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Contents
Additional Resources.....................................................................................................................5
Chapter 1: Overview...................................................................................................................... 6
PowerStore X model appliance overview...................................................................................................................... 6
Supported switches............................................................................................................................................................ 6
Contents 3
Chapter 8: Initial configuration of the PowerStore X model appliance.......................................... 41
Initial Configuration Wizard............................................................................................................................................. 41
Get your completed Initial Configuration Worksheet .............................................................................................. 42
4 Contents
Preface
As part of an improvement effort, revisions of the software and hardware are periodically released. Some functions that are
described in this document are not supported by all versions of the software or hardware currently in use. The product release
notes provide the most up-to-date information about product features. Contact your service provider if a product does not
function properly or does not function as described in this document.
Additional Resources 5
1
Overview
This chapter includes the following information.
Topics:
• PowerStore X model appliance overview
• Supported switches
Supporting documentation
In addition to reading through this document, you should also read through the following guides, prior to configuring your
switches and networks:
● PowerStore Quick Start Guide
● PowerStore Planning Guide
● PowerStore Hardware Information Guide
Supported switches
The planning, and requirements sections of this guide can be used to prepare to deploy PowerStore appliance with any
supported switch. The configuration steps provided in this guide, however, are specific steps for deploying PowerStore with Dell
PowerSwitch Series S4148-ON switches.
If you will not be deploying PowerStore with the S4148-ON switches, see the PowerStore Simple Support Matrix available at
https://www.dell.com/powerstoredocs for details.
6 Overview
2
Prepare to configure switches and networks
This chapter contains the following information.
Topics:
• PowerStore X model Network Setup Preparation Worksheet
• Initial Configuration Worksheet
Node A, Port 0 to
Node A, Port 1 to
Node B, Port 0 to
Node B, Port 1 to
4. Record the switch port to use for discovery while
configuring your switches.
5. Record the VLAN IDs that will be used for system management:
Remote Discovery (untagged)
Alternatively, record the uplink port channel IDs required for L2 uplinks without MC-LAG.
L2 uplinks without MC-LAG connectivity requires two port channel IDs.
Cluster Name
Appliance Service Tags Single Drive Failure
Enter the service tag. The service tag appears or
on the black tag on the front of the base
Double Drive Failure
enclosure. When the systems arrive identify
the base enclosures that you want to configure Single Drive Failure
as a cluster and record their service tags.
or
Drive Failure Tolerance Level
Double Drive Failure
Next to each appliance select the drive failure Single Drive Failure
tolerance level you want to set. The drive or
failure tolerance level indicates the amount
of concurrent drive failures the appliance can Double Drive Failure
sustain without causing a data unavailable
or data loss event. The single drive fault Single Drive Failure
tolerance level meets availability requirements or
for all drive types and capacity points. But
the double drive failure tolerance can provide Double Drive Failure
higher resiliency and protection.
Ensure that there are at least the following
number of SSD drives in the enclosure:
● At least 6 for single drive failure tolerance
● 7 for double drive failure tolerance
NOTE: Once set, the drive failure
tolerance level for an appliance cannot be
changed.
Networks
Your cluster requires a dedicated set of IP addresses for each type of network.
NOTE: VLAN information for management, storage, and vMotion networks are optional and default to 0. It is a marker
used to indicate that the network traffic is not tagged and native VLAN is applied through the switch. For better security
and performance, it is recommended that you specify a unique VLAN information for each type of network.
If you are deploying into a single VLAN, it is recommended that you configure a unique subnet for each type of network.
Cluster IP Address
Management Network
Connects the cluster to services such as DNS and NTP. The IP addresses in the management network are used to address the
cluster, appliances, controllers, and internal hosts.
Storage Network
Enables clients to access the storage in the cluster. The IP addresses in the storage network are used for iSCSI targets, iSCSI
initiators, and the Global Storage Discovery IP address.
At a minimum, you need 6 IP addresses for each PowerStore X model appliance. However, for performance improvements, it is
highly recommended that you have a minimum of 8 IP addresses for each PowerStore X model appliance.
If you choose to create a Global Storage Discovery IP Address, you will need a minimum of 7 IP addresses, and a recommended
9 IP addresses for each appliance.
If you choose to configure the Global Storage Discovery IP address, the last IP address you
specify for the Storage Network is used as the Global Storage Discovery IP address.
vMotion Network
Enables users to migrate virtual machines within the vSphere cluster. The IP addresses in the vMotion network are used for a
dedicated network that transfer virtual machines between appliances.
Infrastructure Services
Record IP addresses for your DNS and NTP servers. It is recommended that you specify at least two addresses for DNS and
NTP servers each.
DNS Server
NTP Server
Physical/Top-of-Rack Switch Information
Record the switch IP addresses to validate the cabling and switch settings before the cluster is configured. The switch
credentials provide PowerStore X modelwith read-only access to the switches to validate that the configuration on the
switches will support the cluster networks.
Switch Name
Protocol (SSH/SNMP)
IP Address
Port
SSH Username
Switch Password
Hypervisor
Record your existing vCenter administrator login credentials. The initial configuration workflow automatically creates a
datacenter and ESXi cluster, and associates them with your cluster.
Admin Username
Password This is the user-defined password provided after initial log in to the PowerStore X
model appliance.
Optimization
iSCSI IP Addresses
Optionally, specify up to 2 additional IP addresses to configure a second iSCSI interface.
SupportAssist (Optional)
Dell SupportAssist is a secure, automated health and system monitoring capability. It sends notifications to Dell , enables
remote support, and sends data to CloudIQ. Once your cluster is created successfully, you can connect to SupportAssist. If
you already have SupportAssist enabled, record the associated account details and the gateway or proxy IP information here.
Tip: The default port number Dell uses is 9443.
NOTE: If neither of the switch interconnect options are available then you can use a Direct Trunk Link, but this is not
recommended.
NOTE: Refer to your vendor's documentation to determine their technology for MC-LAG.
In an MC-LAG environment, the two switches are treated as one logical switch. This allows you to add all the uplinks from both
switches into a single port channel that will span the MC-LAG.
Upstream Upstream
Switch 1 Switch 2
Port Channel
Node A Node B
Appliance
NOTE: Port location for the reliable high speed uplinks may change depending on switch vendor or model.
Upstream Upstream
Switch 1 Switch 2
Port Channel
Node A Node B
Appliance
Passive
NOTE: Port location for the reliable high speed uplinks may change depending on switch vendor or model.
Management Production
ToR 1 ToR 2
Appliance
Figure 4. PowerStore X model network traffic
Ensure that the PowerStore X model interfaces are able to communicate to each other through the VLANs shown above.
Consult your network vendor documents to ensure all proper L2 and/or L3 traffic is being routed properly for all networks that
PowerStore X model is utilizing.
vMotion Network used for virtual machine (VM) migration. First port of the 4-port
card is active, and the
second port is used for
backup
Internal The internal network communication occurs on the Native First 2 ports of the 4-port
VLAN. The internal network is not currently used in this card
release.
Untagged traffic
If you want to use the native VLAN for any of your PowerStore networks, you must enter VLAN ID 0 (zero) for any untagged
traffic in the PowerStore Initial Configuration Wizard. PowerStore uses VLAN 0 as a marker for untagged traffic. When you
set the VLAN ID to zero, the network traffic is not tagged (based on the 802.1q standard), and the network takes on the native
VLAN. The traffic on that network is passed as untagged in PowerStore, and the Native VLAN is applied to the untagged traffic
through the switch.
You can choose to assign either IPv4 or IPv6 addresses to the management, storage, or vMotion networks. You cannot assign
different IP versions to the same network, for example, all 6 IPs assigned to the management network must all be either IPv4 or
IPv6. You can use different IP versions for different networks for example, you can use IPv4 for the management network, and
IPv6 for the storage network.
Alternatively, record the uplink port channel IDs required for L2 uplinks without MC-LAG.
L2 uplinks without MC-LAG connectivity requires two port channel IDs.
Management Port
configure terminal
8. It is recommended that you change the password after logging into the switch for the first time. Use the following command
to change the switch password.
System Information
---------------------------------------------------------
Vendor Name : Dell
Product Name : S4148F-ON
Hardware Version: A00
Platform Name : x86_64-dellemc_s4100_c2538-r0
PPID : CN00Y2VTCES0082O0038
Service Tag : D8MSG02
License Details
NOTE: If OS10EE was factory installed, a perpetual license is already installed on the switch.
configure terminal
hostname Switch1
4. If performing remote discovery, optionally configure an ethernet interface on the switch for the remote discovery
workstation.
NOTE: You do not need to perform this step when configuring Switch 2.
NOTE: Be sure to use a different IP address when configuring switch 2. This document uses 100.0.100.11/24 in the
example for Switch2.
Switch1 Switch2
exit
configure terminal
interface vlan 1
description Internal_Network
no shutdown
exit
configure terminal
interface vlan 1
description Internal_Network
no shutdown
exit
configure terminal
3. Disable L2 mode on the 100 GbE ports that will be used for VLTi on Switch1.
vlt-domain 1
discovery-interface ethernet 1/1/25-1/1/26
6. Enable peer-routing to prepare to configure your uplinks. Peer routing enables or disables L3 routing to peers.
NOTE: Steps to configure uplinks to the customer networks are not described in this guide.
peer-routing
primary-priority 1
Valid priority values range from 1 to 65535. The switch with the lower priority setting will take precedence of the switch with
the higher priority value. Do not set the same priority value to the two ToR switches.
8. Enter a VLT MAC address to avoid conflicts on the network.
NOTE: You cannot use all zeros (00:00:00:00:00) for the VLT MAC address.
vlt-mac 00:00:00:00:00:01
Once you have configured VLTi for the interconnect, you will need to configure port interfaces for VLTi connectivity.
When enabling your uplinks to the customer network it is helpful to know that VLTi configurations for PowerStore X model
require that port channels are configured for the uplink ports to avoid looping.
configure terminal
3. Configure allowed VLANs and the native VLAN for Node A port 0 and ToR switch 1.
NOTE: For iSCSI best practices, it is recommended to disable flow control as demonstrated below.
configure terminal
interface ethernet 1/1/54
description Node-B-Port-1
no shutdown
switchport mode trunk
switchport access vlan 1
switchport trunk allowed vlan 100,200,400
flowcontrol receive off
flowcontrol transmit off
spanning-tree port type edge
exit
5. Repeat steps on switch 2 connectivity to Node A Port 0 and Node B Port 1 as demonstrated below.
While configuring Switch 2, note that the ethernet interfaces are reversed. Ethernet interface 1 is configured on Node-B-
Port-1 and interface 54 is configured on Node-A-Port-0 as demonstrated below.
Table 12. Code sample configuring port interfaces on the ToR switches
Switch 1 connectivity to Node A Port 0 Switch 2 connectivity to Node A Port 1
configure terminal
interface port-channel 30
description Uplink
no shutdown
switchport mode trunk
switchport access vlan 1
switchport trunk allowed vlan 100,200,400
vlt-port-channel 30
6. Repeat on Switch2.
configure terminal
interface port-channel 30
description Uplink
2 4
1 3
As demonstrated in the diagram, when cabling the nodes to the ToR switches:
● Port 0 and Port 1 on the same node must connect to opposite switches
● Port 0 on Node A, and Port 0 on Node B must connect to opposite switches
● Port 1 on Node A, and Port 1 on Node B must connect to opposite switches
1
2
Use two cables that support connectivity between the high speed ports, for example 100Gbps Direct Attached Cables (DAC).
It is recommended that you use the same port numbers for the pair on the top and bottom switch.
Core uplinks
Uplink A Uplink B
1 3 4 2
Figure 7. Dell PowerSwitch Serires S4148-ON ToR switch connections to the core uplinks
Table 15. Steps to connect to the Dell PowerSwitch Serires S4148-ON ToR switches to the core uplinks
1 Connect port 30 of the bottom ToR switch to the core Uplink A.
2 Connect port 29 of the bottom ToR switch to the core Uplink B.
3 Connect port 29 of the top ToR switch to the core Uplink A.
4 Connect port 30 of the top ToR switch to the core Uplink B.
NOTE: Work with your network administrator to determine the uplink ports to which the ToR switches will connect.
show vlan
Domain ID : 1
Unit ID : 2
Role : primary
Version : 2.0
Local System MAC address : e4:f0:04:76:dd:8e
Role priority : 1
VLT MAC address : 00:00:00:00:00:01
IP address : fda5:74c8:b79e:1::2
Delay-Restore timer : 90 seconds
Peer-Routing : Enabled
Peer-Routing-Timeout timer : 0 seconds
VLTi Link Status
port-channel1000 : up
VLT-MAC mismatch:
No mismatch
Peer-routing mismatch:
No mismatch
VLAN mismatch:
vlt-port-channel ID : 30
VLT Unit ID Port-Channel Status Configured ports Active ports
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 port-channel30 up 2 2
* 2 port-channel30 up 2 2
10. Review the running configuration for ToR switch 1, and repeat all validation steps for ToR switch 2.
show running-configuration
For an example of the running configuration output see PowerStore X model: Running configuration of Dell PowerSwitch
Series S4148-On switches.
B
Node
Node
Network
A
Networks
Your cluster requires a dedicated set of IP addresses for each type of network.
NOTE: VLAN information for management, storage, and vMotion networks are optional and default to 0. It is a marker
used to indicate that the network traffic is not tagged and native VLAN is applied through the switch. For better security
and performance, it is recommended that you specify a unique VLAN information for each type of network.
If you are deploying into a single VLAN, it is recommended that you configure a unique subnet for each type of network.
Management Network
Connects the cluster to services such as DNS and NTP. The IP addresses in the management network are used to address the
cluster, appliances, controllers, and internal hosts.
Storage Network
Enables clients to access the storage in the cluster. The IP addresses in the storage network are used for iSCSI targets, iSCSI
initiators, and the Global Storage Discovery IP address.
At a minimum, you need 6 IP addresses for each PowerStore X model appliance. However, for performance improvements, it is
highly recommended that you have a minimum of 8 IP addresses for each PowerStore X model appliance.
If you choose to create a Global Storage Discovery IP Address, you will need a minimum of 7 IP addresses, and a recommended
9 IP addresses for each appliance.
vMotion Network
Enables users to migrate virtual machines within the vSphere cluster. The IP addresses in the vMotion network are used for a
dedicated network that transfer virtual machines between appliances.
Hypervisor
Record your existing vCenter administrator login credentials. The initial configuration workflow automatically creates a
datacenter and ESXi cluster, and associates them with your cluster.
Password This is the user-defined password provided after initial log in to the
PowerStore X model appliance.
Optimization
Optional setting that can optimize the performance of your cluster.
SupportAssist (Optional)
Dell SupportAssist is a secure, automated health and system monitoring capability. It sends notifications to Dell, enables
remote support, and sends data to CloudIQ. Once your cluster is created successfully, you can connect to SupportAssist. If
you already have SupportAssist enabled, record the associated account details and the gateway or proxy IP information here.
Tip: The default port number Dell uses is 9443.
Perform the following steps to configure an additional port and expand a Storage network you have configured on the
PowerStore X model appliance.
1. Cable the nodes to the switches for storage network expansion.
2. Configure the VLAN on the Top-of-Rack (ToR) switches.
3. Add IP addresses and map the Storage network to the virtual ports.
1 2
1. Connect Port 2 of the bottom node (A) to Port 2 of the bottom switch (1).
configure terminal
3. Configure the storage network VLAN to run over ToR Switch 1 port 2.
Table 19. Code sample for configuring ToR switches to expand an iSCSI Storage network
Tor Switch 1 ToR Switch 2
Perform the following steps to configure an additional port on which to create a new Storage network on the PowerStore X
model appliance.
1. Cable the nodes to the ToR switches.
2. Configure a Storage network on the ToR switches.
3. Create additional Storage network in PowerStore Manager.
1 2
1. Connect Port 2 of the bottom node (A) to Port 2 of the bottom switch (1).
configure terminal
Table 22. Code sample for configuring ToR switches for a new iSCSI Storage network
Tor Switch 1 ToR Switch 2
OS10# reload
System configuration has been modified. Save? [yes/no]:n
Proceed to reboot the system? [confirm yes/no]:y
show running-configuration