Using an EMC AX100 SAN with Debian and a Dell 1955 blade

[Stephen Carr]

oops, I meant to send it to the group,  sorry about that. 
I had them zoned as follows (only using one switch and two processor ports):
Zone 1
HBA1 ->SPA0,SPB0
 
Zone 2
HBA2 ->SPB0,SPA0
 
I was trying not to get into anything fancy. Maybe that is why I can't get the paths to "coalesce". Should I not point both HBA's to the same SP?
 
I'm in the process of downloading the full Power Solutions Issue PDF to see if it is in a sidebar somewhere (they did say it accompanied the article).
 
Anyway, thanks for getting back to me on this, I'm really hoping to make this work. I see this as a great solution to build a Xen virtualization infrastructure on if I can get past this point.
 
Steve

________________________________

From: Harald_Jensas at Dell.com [mailto:Harald_Jensas at Dell.com] 
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 1:35 PM
To: Stephen Carr
Subject: RE: Using an EMC AX100 SAN with Debian and a Dell 1955 blade


Hi,
 
How did you initially zone your switches?
 
I would go with single initiator zoning:
 
Switch 1:
Zone 1: Server 1 HBA1, SPA0, SPB1
Zone 2: Server 2 HBA1, SPA0, SPB1
 
Switch 2:
Zone 1: Server 1 HBA2, SPA1, SPB0
Zone 2: Server 2 HBA2, SPA1, SPB0
 

I will try to find the link to the sample configuration for multipath and get back to you with that.
 
 
 
--
Harald Jensås

________________________________

	From: Stephen Carr [mailto:SCarr at bastyr.edu] 
	Sent: den 16 mars 2007 21:28
	To: Jensas, Harald
	Subject: RE: Using an EMC AX100 SAN with Debian and a Dell 1955 blade
	
	
	thanks for that link. It has a nice overview that shows me what I'm trying to do is possible but I can't get a version of multipath.conf that makes it work. If I change the zones on my FC switch so I just have
	HBA1 -> SPA
	HBA2 -> SPB 
	    (no redundancy per HBA)
	then I can get everything to work just fine (I get the device to show up in /dev/mapper and can format it etc) except I can't get that device to mount a startup (through fstab) because multipathd hasn't started yet (but that is my next problem).
	 
	If I put the redundancy back in, multipath keeps giving errors and can't build a table (it tries to split the "4" devices into 2 instead seeing as one) no matter what kind of policy I set in multipath.conf for the multipaths and the devices.
	 
	In the linked pdf there is mention of going to www.dell.com/powersolutions and getting a sample multipath.conf file for the EMC AX100 but I could not find it anywhere. So, if you can at least point me to that for starters I'd be very thankful.
	 
	Again, thanks for the link, it is a start.

________________________________

	From: linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com [mailto:linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com] On Behalf Of Harald_Jensas at dell.com
	Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 11:58 AM
	To: Stephen Carr; linux-poweredge at lists.us.dell.com
	Subject: RE: Using an EMC AX100 SAN with Debian and a Dell 1955 blade
	
	
	Assuming SPA is the owner of the LUN you are seeing i belive it is correct that the connections to SPB should see the device as inactive or passive.
	 
	Have a look at this article regarding Multipath and Linux, maby it will help.
	 
	http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/power/ps3q06-20060189-Michael.pdf
	 
	 
	 
	--
	Harald Jensås


________________________________

		From: linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com [mailto:linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Carr
		Sent: den 15 mars 2007 23:16
		To: linux-poweredge-Lists
		Subject: Using an EMC AX100 SAN with Debian and a Dell 1955 blade
		
		

		Okay, I've gotten pretty far in the process of setting up a AX100 array with a Dell 1955 blade with the Qlogic HBA's (QME2462's) by using the NaviSphere Utility but have run into a wall trying to get Multipath to work with the SAN. Has anyone had experience getting multipath to work with an EMC AX100 (or something similar). I just can't get it top see the multiple connections as one device no matter what I try. I have two HBA connections and each connection can see both Storage Processors so you get something like this

		/dev/sdb - active HBA1 to SPA (I have a partition (sdb1) that works fine stand alone 
		/dev/sdc - inactive HBA1 to SPB (fdisk doesn't see this device at it is inactive) 
		/dev/sdd - active HBA2 to SPA (it sees the sdb1 partition as sdd1 and can be mounted like sdb1) 
		/dev/sde - inactive HBA2 to SPB (fdisk doesn't see this device at it is inactive) 

		Any type of grouping I try fails so any leads would be greatly appreciated (I can post my multipath.conf file if needed)

		Thanks in advance. 

		Stephen Carr 
		Network Administrator II 
		Bastyr University 
		scarr at bastyr.edu 


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