Igor Batinic wrote:
Yes they can. that is true for the 'old' 3000 and 5000 versions, it is
true for the present 4000, 6000 and 8000 versions, and it will be true
for the new versions in 2008


That is what I wrote, active/passive, two (or more) paths, but only the
paths to one controller can be active for one lun. This is a failover
configuration.

Oh yes it is, if you want good performance.

An example from my experience with Clariion. A customer wanted to use
Clariion storage because it was cheaper than DMX storage. It was set up,
and the database performance was lousy. I was asked to have a look at
it, and I soon discovered many errors in the whole setup, which means
errors in the setup of the Clariion as well as errors in the setup of
the volume manager configuration of the SUN system.

I had the whole Clariion reconfigured, making sure that similar luns
ware created on raidgroups that were serviced by controller 0, and
raidgroups that were serviced by controller 1. Then I used the Solaris
volume manager to make stripe sets of these luns, taking care that I
used the correct interlace factor.

The end result was that the storage was 2.5 to 3 times faster then in
the first configuration.

It took about half a day work with 3 people to do this, and it took a
lot of thinking, reading, calculating and designing. With an EVA this
would have taken not even a few minutes, and no use of the volume
manager on the Solaris box.

So yes, it does make a difference.