When connecting a VPLEX Cluster-1 to VPLEX Cluster-2, the best practice is to ensure that every director port in Cluster-1 is zoned to every director port in Cluster-2 within each fabric. This approach is recommended to maintain a robust and resilient storage network that can handle failover scenarios and provide continuous availability.

Zoning Directors: Zoning is a SAN best practice that isolates traffic within the fabric to specific devices. By zoning every director port from one cluster to every director port in the other cluster, you ensure that there are multiple paths for communication, which enhances redundancy and fault tolerance1.

Fabric Configuration: Each fabric should be configured separately to maintain isolation between the paths. This prevents a single point of failure from affecting all paths and allows for continued operation even if one fabric experiences issues1.

Path Redundancy: With every director port zoned to its counterpart in the other cluster, there are multiple paths for data to travel. This redundancy is crucial for VPLEX Metro’s high availability, as it allows for seamless failover between clusters1.

Continuous Availability: VPLEX is designed for continuous availability, and proper zoning is key to achieving this. The zoning configuration should support VPLEX’s ability to provide uninterrupted access to data, even in the event of hardware failures or maintenance activities1.

Best Practices Documentation: Dell EMC provides detailed documentation on VPLEX implementation and best practices, including zoning recommendations. It is important to consult these documents when planning and implementing zoning for VPLEX clusters1.

In summary, the best practice for connecting VPLEX Cluster-1 to Cluster-2 is to zone every director port to every director port in each fabric, ensuring multiple paths for communication and enhancing the overall resilience of the storage network.