Tech Deep Dive: Navigating Storage Interface Shared Mode & Link Aggregation Restrictions
  

George Fady Lv2Posted 2026-Jun-30 19:03

Hey network wizards!
In small-scale or Remote Office/Branch Office (ROBO) deployments, physical server interface availability is often highly constrained. Sangfor HCI solves this via Storage Interface - Shared Mode, allowing the storage network layer to share physical ports with Management, VXLAN, and Physical Edge traffic.
However, doing this requires strict compliance with specific deployment rules:
  • NIC Constraints: Storage shared mode is not universal; it is heavily restricted to enterprise-grade controllers—specifically Intel X710 and Mellanox ConnectX-4 (CX4) 10G/25G adapters. Trying to force-mix this on unsupported adapters is a recipe for kernel sync errors.
  • Aggregation Mandate: When storage traffic is forced into shared mode, you must select Standard Link Aggregation to aggregate connections to a third-party switch.
  • Redundancy Modes: While a 2-node direct-connection model is highly cost-effective, standard production architectures should utilize Link Aggregation with Two Switches to eliminate the single-point-of-failure at the network layer.

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