HP BladeSystem Deployment Guide for Solutions with 6Gb SAS BL Switches and External SAS Storage Enclosures

9 Deployment examples
The following sections describe example deployments:
• “Introduction” (page 71)
• “Device SAS port information” (page 73)
• “External SAS device, controller, drive, and cabling support matrices” (page 77)
• “Illustrated configuration examples” (page 79)
Introduction
Examples in this section illustrate a few of the supported deployments when connecting external
SAS storage enclosures to the c-Class BladeSystem enclosure. The focus of these examples is on
hardware options, requirements, and SAS cabling. Most examples are of dual-domain,
high-availability configurations, so that if any component along the path fails, traffic will fail over
to the alternate path.
• Most configurations discussed and illustrated in this document provide high availability to the
storage enclosures:
◦ Standard high-availability cabling provides two cable paths to the external storage; one
to the primary switch and the other one to the paired switch in the same interconnect row
of BladeSystem c-Class enclosure.
◦ Optimal and high-performance, high-availability cabling provide more paths to the external
storage. The additional paths in optimal and high-performance cabling configurations
provide additional availability and offer improved performance.
• In the provided illustrations, colors are used to highlight and differentiate the cable paths from
the HP 6Gb SAS BL Switches to the storage enclosures. The choice of colors do not represent
the actual color of the cable.
◦ Green cables: Connections to the primary (left) switch in the BladeSystem c-Class enclosure.
(Interconnect bays 3, 5, or 7)
◦ Red cables: Connections to the paired switch in the same row of the BladeSystem c-Class
enclosure. (Interconnect bays 4, 6, or 8)
Introduction 71