3 – Reference architecture

In this series of post I will start with a simplified SAN architecture based upon a dual-fabric edge-core-edge design. (Remember this might not be a good design as I described here but for the purpose of this guide it will suffice.) As we go along with other topics we’ll extend it as needed. The top switch is SW01, the core switch is SW02 and the bottom switch is SW03. This is valid for both fabrics.

fab-01

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For now the setup of the folder structure on the ftp server will look something like this:

Selection_093

For firmware  updates we use a single folder called FOS and we put all required firmware images we need in there:

Selection_094  etc. etc.

Then we configure these two folders in the ftp server for the functional user to have read-only ftp access on the “FOS” folder plus subdirectories and have write-only access to the “Uploads” folder plus subdirectories.

Selection_096

You might wonder why I spend so much time on this but there is a reason. I work in support and I’ve seen a riddle of these configurations where everything is dumped into a single bucket and zipped up for the support-people to sort out the file and folder structure where sometimes supportsaves from switches are forgotten, files are missing and firmwaredownloads go horribly wrong due to a misconfiguration on the ftp server.

In short the configuration now looks a bit like this:

image

As you can see I’ve added some IP addresses for reference. The core-switch has three, each cp-blade physical interface has one and the chassis has a virtual IP address which always connects to the Active CP.

Lets move on to the switches themselves.

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