Connecting with the FC SAN

You can use connector nodes to connect to the SAN using Fibre Channel cables. The solution is available for use with Netezza® Performance Server.

Cloud Pak for Data does not support Fibre Channel SAN by default.

Before you begin

Following are the connector node requirements when using FC SAN:

Customer must have their own FC SAN hardware. That includes any storage arrays or JBOD (array with RAID recommended), any FC switches (redundant pair with zoning recommended), and FC cables between the storage array and switch(es), and the switch(es) and connector nodes
Customer must engage their storage SME/admin for identifying how many LUNs of what size to use, and to write down the WWIDs of those LUNs for future reference.
Customer should add the WWNs of the connector node FC HBAs to their storage device so that the WWNs are permitted to see the LUNs from their storage device. See the following steps for more information.

About this task

Each connector node has two dual port FC HBA cards for a total of 4 ports per connector node.

At least two cables are recommended, one per FC HBA card, to provide redundancy.

At least 4 cables are recommended for optimal I/O performance on BnR and external tables.

Procedure

Connect SAN Fibre Channel cables to slot 2 and slot 4, ports 0 and 1.

You can choose how many FC links to connect, but more is better due to better bandwidth and better redundancy. If only connecting two cables, one should be in slot 2 port 0, one in slot 4 port 0.

Connect the same SAN device on your end with all connector nodes on Cloud Pak for Data System end.
To verify the connection, you can check the SAN device to see whether the device shows that these FC ports connected to their device have link and are the correct speed.
Work with your storage administrator to collect the WWIDs of all of the customer storage LUNs that are used with the connector nodes on Cloud Pak for Data System. These are needed later to properly connect to the LUNs via the nzdeploy script. This step in the process does not require any use of the Cloud Pak for Data System and is all done through the customer-owned systems and network:
Collect the WWNs of the FC HBA ports on the connector nodes. The storage administrator must use a storage hardware GUI or CLI to allow those WWNs to see the LUNs. Otherwise, the connector node will likely not discover the LUNs the customer is intending to use with the connector nodes.
To collect WWNs:
1. ssh to the connector node, for example, if e5n1 is a connector node:
```
ssh core@e5n1
```
2. Run:
```
cat /sys/class/fc_host/*
```
  Example:
```
[core@e7n1 ~]# cat /sys/ fc_host / port_name
0x100000109bba7c2a
0x100000109bba7c2b
0x100000109bba7ce4
0x100000109bba7ce5
```
3. Repeat the steps on all connector nodes.