Adding HBA Bandwidth

[EdMunster]

Hello backup experts. I need to increase the bandwidth on my HBA since I am pegging it during my backup window.

I have a linux media master with a 2 GB dual port Qlogic HBA in it. Right now I am only using one port in the HBA.

The one port goes out to my SAN Switch and is in a zone with my tape library and my NetApp Filers. 

I would like to use the other port in the HBA and I hear of people saying "....6 HBA's in my media / master" but I do not know how to set it up or how it actually works.

Do I just plug it in and zone it up to the filer and zone the other HBA to something else?

Or Do I just add the other port to the same zone? If this is the case is it a function of the HBA driver that does the load balancing?

Thanks.

[Vsevolod]

Hello,

So, it is try to answer your question:

1. To use load balancing to your disk subsystem you need to connect ports to switch, zone it to disk storage (best practice is to add one HBA port and one disk storage port in separate zone) and configure multipathing at the server side. In your case, the best, it seems to me, to use multipath-tools (which Linux distribution you use?) http://christophe.varoqui.free.fr/

2. As I know, today no one library drive support multipathing, that means, that only one path can be used for writing to library drive and you can use another path to another drive.