Create host cluster

You create a host cluster when two or more hosts require I/O access to the same volumes.

About this task

Keep these guidelines in mind when you create a host cluster:

This operation does not start unless there are two or more hosts available to create the cluster.
Hosts in host clusters can have different operating systems (heterogeneous).
To create a Data Assurance (DA)-enabled volume, the host connection you are planning to use must support DA.
If any of the host connections on the controllers in your storage array do not support DA, the associated hosts cannot access data on DA-enabled volumes.

DA is not supported by iSCSI over TCP/IP, or by the SRP over InfiniBand.
This operation does not succeed if the name you choose is already in use.
The length of the name cannot exceed 30 characters.

Select the settings for the host cluster as appropriate.

Setting	Description
Name	Type the name for the new host cluster.
Hosts	Select two or more hosts from the drop-down list. Only those hosts that are not already part of a host cluster appear in the list.

Click Create.
If the selected hosts are attached to interface types that have different Data Assurance (DA) capabilities, a dialog appears with the message that DA will be unavailable on the host cluster. This unavailability prevents DA-enabled volumes from being added to the host cluster. Select Yes to continue or No to cancel.

DA increases data integrity across the entire storage system. DA enables the storage array to check for errors that might occur when data is moved between the hosts and the drives. Using DA for the new volume ensures that any errors are detected.

The new host cluster appears in the table with the assigned hosts in the rows beneath.