Storage Array types
We have learnt from the previous section that there are different types of arrays not just based on the protocol they support but also the type of load balancing and failover they support.
There are three types of arrays based on their load balancing or failover abilities:
Active/active array
Active/passive array
ALUA (Asymmetric Logical Unit Access) array
The Active/Active or Symmetric Active/Active array will have all the ports on its storage controllers to allow simultaneous processing of the I/O offering the same levels of performance and access to all LUNs:
In a symmetric active/active array, there is no concept of a standby controller.
Tip
Design Tip: When designing a storage architecture with a symmetric active/active array, you can choose different preferred paths on different sets of ESXi hosts in a cluster/data center. For instance, if you have a 10 hosts cluster, then you could set five hosts to use a preferred path via controller-1 and a second set of five hosts...
