We’ve been expanding our storage capacity here at work in the recent weeks.  As such, cabling all of these IBM DS4700s and their associated EXP810s (full of glorious fiber channel and SATA drives) became a task.

The question has always been how best to cable the fiber that keeps all this stuff working properly.  You see, each DS4700 (the controlling enclosure) has two fiber controllers, each with two HBAs for connecting the EXP810 expansion enclosures.  Well, we came across an IBM document that details exactly how they recommend cabling – and here it is.  And here is the recommendation for a DS4700 with its maximum number (six) of expansion EXP810s (click for a larger view):