Hello,
I recently picked up a used PowerVault MD3200i (2 controllers, 12 300GB 15k SAS drives) and am planning an implementation into my existing infrastructure.
We are a smaller business with a single R710 having 2 local disk VMs (SBS 2011 and W2k8 R2) connected to a single Netgear 48p gigabit managed switch. I also have a Western Digital DX4000 NAS device with 2008 Storage Server that acts as a iSCSI target for one of the VMs - this device would be replaced with the MD3200i. I don't forsee our network growing past it's current infrastructure requirements in terms of servers or storage needs.
I have read all the Dell documentation on best practices, setup, etc on the MD3200i and have some questions on possibilities implementing this device without having to add multiple switches to our environment.
To avoid adding multiple switches to support the connection of R710 to MD3200i, can I not add a couple of these Intel 4 port NICs to my R710 and direct connect them using CAT6 cables using the suggested subnetting techniques outlined in the setup docs (each NIC with different subnet), running two NIC ports from NIC A to controller 1 and other two NIC ports to the controller B - vice versa on the 2nd NIC?
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/network-adapters/gigabit-network-adapters/pro-1000-pt-qp.html
EDIT:
I found these couple postings showing other people who have setup this SAN way for reference:
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/storage/f/1216/t/19350753
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/storage/f/1216/t/19350753
I would still like some feedback as to pros/cons in doing it this way instead of using switches.