Plan carefully when defining a . Because the host runs the storage management software and acts as the primary interface for the administration group, the host is the single most important component to a well-organized and well-managed array.
You must make several decisions before you begin defining a host. Consider the following questions before you begin setting up the host:
Do you plan to use on this ? Storage partitions can help organize data by dividing disks into partitions that behave as if they were independent disks.
What is the name of the host? You need the name to determine what host you will use to communicate with the disk array.
To which ports will you be connecting? Verify the connections on the back of the to determine which HBA is connected to the storage array
that you are configuring.
What operating system (OS) does the host use? The OS determines how requests are handled by the storage array when the host reads and writes data to the .
Will this host be part of a ? If so, what is the name of the host group? If the host group does not exist yet, what will the name be, and which hosts will be part of the group? Depending on your storage array setup, you might determine that the host should share access to virtual disks with one or more other hosts. This
situation requires that you set up a host group.
Answer these questions as part of the Define Host Wizard. Planning helps eliminate mistakes and the need to make corrections after the host is defined.