I have recently acquired 20x dell r710’s without drives, but with 4x Emulex 8gb LPe12002-E HBA cards in each server, I have 2 massive freenas boxes already and from what I understand I should be able to serve up FC LUNs also? (I already have iscsi running for pxe booting other stuff) how do I connect it all together? (Obviously a fiber switch I’d assume?) Google hasn’t proven very helpful other than some sketchy diagrams and since this is my homelab where I learn I dont have a massive corporate budget so I cant afford to throw a ton of cash in the wrong direction… if anyone can help or has advice I’d greatly appreciate it… thanks!
I’m guessing you do direct connect, but I’ve never actually messed with it. I’ve had some FC SFP+ modules come in a couple servers I bought. I replaced them with 10g fiber modules or DAC cables and did direct connect until I got a switch.
Updates… got a 80 port brocade 8gig san switch, 30 runs of fiber to start, a pile of sfp+ 8gig modules, and some 4 port qlogic 8gig cards for my existing freenas servers because qlogic were the only cards I could find any documentation regarding target mode operations in freenas… so far I believe the server side is ok, working out configuring the switch and clients… only get about 5-10 hours a week between work & family but it is becoming an interesting project…
Wow! I’m glad I’m not paying the electric bill with that much stuff running. Sounds like some good learning though.