windows 2016 and jbod connectivity - windows 2016

[evosmash]

Not entirely sure if this is the exact spot this needs to be but here goes.

I currently have an ibm x3550 m4 with a mellanox infiniband dual port ConnectX-3 VPI card. I am trying to direct connect a netapp ds4243 storage shelf in windows server 2016. I have no experience with infiniband technology and it seems I am missing something because I am getting zero communication. Is there something I need to do to get the two machines to talk? I am not using a switch these are direct connected to each other and from what I know the ds4243 is basically just a jbod and there is a netapp controller that uses infiniband technology and its compatible with the ds4243 so I went with an infiniband card instead of a standard sas hba card and a qsfp to sas cable. Any help would be really appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[i386]

Do you have opensm or another subnet manager running?

 

[KioskAdmin]

Isn't the DS4243 a dumb SAS or FC shelf? You'd need something more to be able to IB into it. IB to hosts, SAS or FC HBA to the shelf.

Here's the doc on the shelf https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_get_file/ECMP1115547

You can't use IB to connect to it.

 

[evosmash]

Do you have opensm or another subnet manager running?

yes I have opensm running.

 

[evosmash]

Isn't the DS4243 a dumb SAS or FC shelf? You'd need something more to be able to IB into it. IB to hosts, SAS or FC HBA to the shelf.

Here's the doc on the shelf https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_get_file/ECMP1115547

You can't use IB to connect to it.

I understood it as the ib card is a host bus adapter card. If i need to go from the shelf to an sas hba why would I need the IB card?

 

[Patrick]

I understood it as the ib card is a host bus adapter card. If i need to go from the shelf to an sas hba why would I need the IB card?

Just looking at the doc and what I remember about the shelf, @KioskAdmin is spot on. You would use the Mellanox to connect to the Filer (in a normal NetApp environment) and then the NetApp filer to the shelf would be SAS or FC.

The DS4243 was meant to connect to a filer like a FAS3220 not as direct attach server storage.

 

[mstrzyze]

as i understand it
he has Infiniband ( QSFP ) --- DS4243 ( SAS /QSFP Connector )

so basically using QSFP conncable tries to connect both..which is not working... ( IB - SAS )

Netapp used IB for HA interconnect/cluster but only controller - controller

now..your box DS4243 is 4RU ( 4 ) 24 HDD ( 24 ) and 3 SAS ( 3 )

what you need is ( in my opinion ) SAS card with exteral connector ( also SAS ) 3 Gbps

 

[evosmash]

as i understand it
he has Infiniband ( QSFP ) --- DS4243 ( SAS /QSFP Connector )

so basically using QSFP conncable tries to connect both..which is not working... ( IB - SAS )

Netapp used IB for HA interconnect/cluster but only controller - controller

now..your box DS4243 is 4RU ( 4 ) 24 HDD ( 24 ) and 3 SAS ( 3 )

what you need is ( in my opinion ) SAS card with exteral connector ( also SAS ) 3 Gbps

alright thanks, i appreciate it guys. I can actually get a netapp sas card i just didnt go with it originally because im stupid. Thats not entirely the issue, i had a couple concerns i thought i was avoiding by going this direction but didnt work out.