[Summary] SAN Question

Thanks to all of you who gave me suitable hints!!!

My question was:


Hi all,

we are testing a solaris machine connected to a HP EVA5000. We decided to
use HP HBAs and because of this we have to use HP securepath software. Up
to the point we are adding the second SAN switch everything is working fine
(virtual disks, slices, filesystems). After enabling the second switch the
solaris os (version 8, i know version 10 is on the market these days ;-)) )
is about to see every disk twice.  To our surprise: after the next
reconfiguration reboot solaris seems to see every disk 4 times by adding
"new" controllers.

My question is: are there any solaris software packages like SAN foundation
kit nessesary to add the desired functionality or should the securepath
software do this job and maybe we are missing a few configuration steps.

thanks in advance. I will summarize!!!

with kind regards
Kay Markus Thiel


The answers!

---------------
after you install the storage works drivers and reboot you will see
each eva disk 4 times, once for each controller port on the eva.
install the secure path package and run /opt/CPQswsp/bin/spconfig then
do a reconfigure reboot. You will only see one path. You can check the
paths by doing a spmgr display

----------------
Hi;

Take a look at /kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf

You want to change the following parameters:

mpxio-disable="no";
auto-failback="enable";

(they will be set to "yes" and "disable"  then do a reconfigure reboot.

Note that the filesystems being presented will change device id's. You
may also need to run cfgadm to configure the cards.

--Drew.

-----------------------
Kay,

secure patch will take care of this, but you have to administer these
connections.  I use Tru64 which has the functionality of secure path built
in.  When you see these paths in Tru64 the OS will tell you if these paths
are valid and which are active.  So with two HBA'a is our system I see 4
paths to my HSV controller...  But this also dependant on zoning, switch
configuration...Did HP install the new stuff or did you???

Lee

--------------------------
Kay,

Securepath should be able to manage the paths. I don't think veritas
multipathing is an option for the EVA because I don't think there is an
array support library available from HP for veritas. When you see the
disk 4 times, is that in spmgr? If so then that is correct I would
think. Each switch has 2 connections to the EVA controllers so each HBA
sees 2 paths to the luns and securepath can manage all those paths. I
believe secure path controls path failover at a level prior to the
solaris logical devices with it's swsp devices so in format you should
see only 1 disk listed per lun.

Regards,
Vic Engle

-------------------------------
Securepath should be doing the job for you.  I have a very poor opinion of
the securepath product on Solaris, unless you install all the bits in
exactly the right way at the right time then it will not work.  One very
important thing is to ensure you have your storage online, correctly zoned
and presented BEFORE installing securepath because it does something magic
on the first install that I have never been able to replicate nor been able
to get any answers out of HP about what it does.  The upshot is that
unless you have everything right first time securepath does not seem to
ever be able to get the multipathing right.

If you can, I would get rid of the HP HBA's and use real Sun ones and then
use the Solaris MPXIO stuff which actually works much better in terms of
configuration _and_, from our tests, is much faster in terms of disk i/o.
For us the HBA's cost about the same from either Sun or HP but we win on
not parting with a large amount of cash for securepath licenses and getting
a better solution.

------------------------------------
You can do LUN masking from SAN admin preventing these to appear as
separate vpaths on solaris hosts.
------------------------------------
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