[HPADM] General question: Is it considered "vital" to have your fabric (switch) supported by the same vendor as your storage?

From: Ayson, Alison (alison.ayson_at_roche.com)
Date: 07/05/05

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    I apologize as this is not necessarily a specific HP question, but I
    respect the experience of those on this list and I'd like to hear your
    opinions.

    I know that a lot of admins subscribed to this list support EMC storage.
    I was wondering if it's considered a "best practice" to have your fabric
    supported by the same vendor as your storage. For example, if I have
    only EMC storage would it be considered foolish to purchase my Brocade
    switches from HP and have HP support the switches?

    I maintain an EMC SAN which consists of 1 Clariion CX700 and one EMC
    8830 Symmetrix. The hosts attached to this SAN are largely HP Compaq DL
    class servers running RedHat Linux. The switches in this SAN are 6
    separate Brocade Silkwork 2 gb "edge" switches, none of which talk to
    each other (which means I have to maintain 6 separate fabrics). I'm
    hoping to migrate to two Brocade 24000B Director switches, thus reducing
    6 fabrics down to two. I can buy the Brocade Director's from either HP
    or EMC. If I buy from HP then I'll get support from HP. If I buy from
    EMC I'll get support from EMC.

    Does anyone out there have EMC storage that's connected to switches
    (Brocade or whatever) that are maintained by a vendor than EMC? If so,
    have you run into problems?

    Is it, in general, considered a good idea to have your storage vendor
    support your fabric?

    I'm looking at HP for a couple of reasons: a) they are pricing their
    switches more competitively and b) EMC support hasn't been that great
    for us in the past.

    I just took over the SAN this last 6 months, so I don't have a huge
    amount of experience under my belt. Because of my inexperience, I'm not
    sure if I'd be creating a difficult situation for myself (finger
    pointing, whatever) if I chose to go with a vendor other than EMC for
    fabric support.

    All opinions, experiences, etc. are greatly appreciated.

    Alison Ayson

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