attaching the hosts to the SAN

[Matthew Geier]

Bahadir Kiziltan wrote:
> download the latest version of PowerPath for Linux (v5.0.1) from
> powerlink web site.
> 
> version 5.0.x is the only supported version in RHEL5.

  The host agent is more useful, as it will make associating the LUNs 
with the host easier.
(Provided switch zoning is set up properly :-)

PowerPath just does path load balancing and fail over. If you don't have 
redundant links, it isn't going to do much. RHEL's 'multipathd' does 
much the same thing, it's just not as mature as Powerpath.

  On the other hand if you run PowerPath in basic mode as you haven't 
paid for it, so don't have the activation key, I don't think it offers 
any thing over the linux native multipath stuff anyway.

  The host agent is optional - I got an OSX machine connected to my EMC 
CX300. Very 'Not Supported' and no host agent, but it works. OSX even 
handles multipath - or at least 2 paths. (With one or two paths the 
storage is visible to OSX, with 4 it isn't !:-)