HPE Storevirtual network configuration - Network Traffic Split

The Latest releases of StoreVirtual OS(Lefthand OS) comes with an option to split the network traffic according to the usage or preference. This network feature will help us to isolate iSCSI traffic from management traffic and lefthand OS network traffic.

The main advantage of this feature is, we can easily define and assign network interface to  split the following network traffic types


iSCSI Traffic (Which is used for iSCSI communication between connected hosts)
Management Traffic (Which is used for managing the storage array using CMC/CLI software. This basically carry the management traffic)
The LeftHand OS Traffic (Which is used for the communication between StoreVirtual nodes and management Groups)

According to the best practice Guide, separating iSCSI traffic will help to boost the array

performance and increase the data transfer rate. Before selecting or splitting the network traffic types, ensure that the interfaces are configured on the same settings and modify the flow control options on the interfaces if required. If you have multiple interfaces, create bond for iSCSI traffic.

Avoid changing the network settings after splitting the network types. it is advisable to perform all network related changes before configuring the management groups and creating the cluster. If we do changes on network interface after creating the cluster, there is a possibility of tampering the cluster node setup and you may face a degraded performance. Please refer storevirtual best practice Guide before modifying the network types.

Let's walk-through on the configuration steps and understand the options.

Connect to the SAN management server and access Centralized Management Console(CMC/CMC CLI) using the admin credentials.before you commence the work, validate the available nodes.

1. Select the storage node from the navigation pane and log in to that node

2. Select Network option by expanding the tree

3. Click the Communication tab. Note that,  at this moment the Lefthand OS interface is FlexLOM:Port3 and we will be changing it to Bond0

4. Click Communication Tasks, and select LeftHand OS Interface/iSCSI interface/Management interface.

5. Select the required interface type or bond for this communication.

6. Click OK.

Wait for few mins and the Lefthand OS will change the communication through the selected interface or bond.

 Repeat the same method and modify the iSCSI interface and Management interface to split the traffic.

Select and click OK and the communication interface will be changed to the one which you have selected and future traffic will be routed through that.

keep in mind that the network settings must be same for the switches and storage devices. you have to setup everything before you define the communication interface and then you can proceed to configuring the Storevitual cluster.