So this is a new term for me, and I'm trying to do all my research on this upfront so when it comes time to implement, hopefully there will be no issues.
I see there are a number of threads here, however they are older.

We are converting a VM to a physical server due to various rules and infosec.

The VM has over 20 TB of data and we'll have to move it either via rsync or fiber over the SAN.

In order to make this go quicker, we want to use NIC Teaming.

My first question is NIC Teaming depending on the hardware or the OS?
The hardware will be a new Dell PowerEdge R530 server. The OS will be a RHEL6.

I see there are Brocade Drivers available:

http://www.broadcom.com/support/?gid=9#mgmt_apps

However are they necessary?

It looks like with a little setup on the RHEL side, NIC Teaming is possible:

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-...interface.html

thanks

Both, really, but more the OS.
Depends on if you're using the SAN. Both Brocade and Emulex have well-supported HBA drivers for SAN connectivity.
It is, but you mention SAN, and Brocade.

Having been down this particular road before, I'll offer up an alternative. Most SAN's can replicate data behind the scenes, VERY quickly. Can your SAN team do something like a BCV snapshot, or have that data replicated to another set of disks, and just present you with different LUN's? Connect to those, and you're pretty much done. Copying 20TB will take a LONG time even over bonded NIC's. Large-scale data moving is usually better done on the SAN side.

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Awesome reply, thank you. Alot of time the vendors aren't very helpful and their answers are too vague to use or apply.

We have some older SANs (Dell) and they aren't licensed for the snapshot option. However we just got a new SAN (NetAPP) and it does come with the snapshot option. However we are all reading up on it and getting ready to do a trial run of moving data from LUN to LUN. Just that we are thinking that the LUN > Data Stores are formatted with EXT4 and then moving the data to raw storage, will it need to be formatted EXT4 as well?

The last time I did this was with EMC SAN's, and when the data was shoveled over, it did everything for us...once the snapshot was there, the volumes were ready to mount. That said, we were moving from one EMC volume to another. You're going between platforms, so I'm not sure.

However, if you're buying something from NetAPP, I'd sure hold the vendors feet to the fire, and get them to answer, and provide you with a migration plan/document on how to get things done.