Network High Availability
The network part of the ThinkAgile CP solution consists of redundant SDN-enabled ONIE (Open Network Install Environment) interconnects, each with 48x10 GbE and 6x40 GbE ports, running the Pica8 NOS (PicOS network operating system). We call these internal interconnects, since only servers and storage internal to ThinkAgile CP can connect directly to these ports.
These two internal interconnects are configured as MLAG peers. Forty-four of the 10 GbE ports are used to connect to our compute nodes and storage controllers. The remaining 10 GbE ports are used for the management network that ties all the storage compute and network blocks together. Two of the 40 GbE ports are used to connect the two internal routers to each other for MLAG traffic. At least one of the 40 GbE ports is used to connect into the customer data center. The remaining three may be used as needed for handling traffic between one interconnect pair and another interconnect pair, or for additional connections into the customer data center.
Each compute node and each storage controller are connected to both interconnects using separate NIC cards. This design protects against the failure of a NIC or of an interconnect.
The two interconnect switches operate in a primary and secondary role. If there is a need to fail over from the primary interconnect switch to the secondary interconnect switch, see the following topic:
Make the secondary interconnect switch the primary interconnect