http://aussiestorageblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/riddle-me-this-when-is-a-sas-drive-not-a-sas-drive/ Very interesting and good post that clears up some of the confusion between these!

Before Register and download ESXi here https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/ Free license can be found there as well. Get ESXi and the vSphere Client. Get an OS to install in a VM (I chose openindiana). Install ESXi in VMWare Workstation 8 40G disk, 4GB RAM, 2 cores, enable Virtualization …

Just took the BCFD (brocade certified fabric designer) exam two days ago. Some tips: Bring some water and food. Good exam, but I am really tired of exams and certifications for now! Also, isn't easy to confuse Brocade Certified Fabric Designer with somebody who makes clothes? Check out my other …

http://brocade.com/education/certification-accreditation/certified-fabric-designer/index.page Data Collection Given a scenario, design a solution that meets the customer's requirements Given a scenario, demonstrate knowledge of resiliency, redundancy, HA, and locality Given a scenario, describe the various documents required in the design assessment Practice by making up many scenarios …

This is a post in series of me studying for the BCFD - Brocade Certified Fabric Designer and it's my comments on the document SAN Design Best Practices. Apparently this document is planned to be updated. The one I have is version 2.1. To find the latest go to My …

http://brasstacksblog.typepad.com/brass-tacks/2012/01/hard-zoning-versus-soft-zoning-in-a-fcfcoe-san.html Usually I don't just post links like this, but I have honestly only just glimpsed through it and it looks very thorough.

Fabric migration planning and implementation Why: faster, better scaling (less switches to manage), running out of ports, hardware refresh, new features. Most of the time is spent assessing, determining strategy, development planning and site preparation. Only 20% is for deployment and validation. The first page describes the order as above …

Second Last module! But that's not the end of it, there are more admin guides, best practices to wade through :) This one is a bit more complicated though, a lot to think about when designing FCR and FCIP SAN networks. FC Routing This is when you have SAN islands (isolated …

Objectives: Discuss general considerations such as attachment, availability, performance and scalability. But also solutions for needs: replication, tape backup, application and databases. This module is quite long. Topologies and Topology Considerations Single Switch Simplest: one switch. HA: use two. Pro: 0 hops. Con: no redundancy. Starting point. Management becomes difficult …

Overview / Preparation Module 3 / SAN Infrastructure The idea for this is for me to write down the things I read about in the modules. As a way for me to learn what they're about and think about them other than just reading them and forgetting them. If I write it …