Has anybody had any experience with the F85? I'm most interested in the hardware. As a continuation of my last message, EMC is pushing hard with an IP4700 against an F85. They've been touting the reliability of their box and that it has no single point of failure (2 processors, etc).

.... Also, does anyone know what type of failover the IP4700 is actually providing between their 2 storage processors.

----------There is a direct/point to point Fibre channel link between the service processors. These service processors are in an active/active failover configuration.

It doesn't look at first glance that the surviving processor takes over the MAC address of the dead processor. It just starts arping for the IP address of its partner.

----------If there is a network connectivity failure of any kind, caused by a dead switch port, bad or loose cable, bad NIC etc., the surviving Ethernet interface on the IP4700 issues an ARP to the LAN switch to update its ARP table so all traffic destined for the dead MAC address is redirected to MAC address of that surviving Ethernet interface.

At this point the remaining LAN interface sends & receives LAN traffic on behalf of the failed NIC, but the data serving is still executed by the Service Processor that is still alive behind the failed NIC. We can accomplish this by sending the data over the previously mentioned Fibre channel link that resides between the 2 service processors.

After the IO request is processed, it is sent back across the FC link & out the surviving LAN interface.

If you need any further explanation I can be reached @ 972.892.2098

Mitch Berke Senior Systems Engineer

EMC² The Enterprise Storage Company 14785 Preston Rd. #250 Dallas, TX 75240 Office - 972.892.7700 Ext. 2098 berke_mitch@emc.com