topic Re: MPIO/DSM versus Secure Path in MSA Storage

MPIO/DSM versus Secure Path

CA1299095 — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 16:35:54 GMT

Good afternoon,

Recently I have been give a project to research migrating an EVA 5000 and about 40 servers from using Secure Path to utilizing MPIO with HP's DSM.

short environment background:
- mostly W2K/W2K3
- two Solaris boxes (version 9)
- small amount of Linux

I'll admit up front that I have very little knowledge of SANS, EVA5000, Secure Path or MPIO... So, I have been reading what I can find, looking through the threads and such...

I have a few questions to start with and hope you will be able to assist me:

1 - Pros/Cons of using MPIO
2 - Pros/Cons of staying with Secure Path
3 - Suggested readings in regards to MPIO and Secure Path
4 - Real World experiences - do you guys like/dislike one or the other.

Finally, if you have suggestions for entering into the world of the EVA 5000 I would appreciate it as well. I am anticipating being sent to training in the near future... but probably not until after I'm to put together this report on the MPIO versus Secure Path.

Thank you in advance for your time and efforts!

Eric

Re: MPIO/DSM versus Secure Path

Uwe Zessin — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 23:59:47 GMT

As far as I can tell, only the so-called 'basic MPIO' supports the EVA 5000. The full-featured MPIO is limitied to the EVA 4000/6000/8000.

The basic MPIO is just that - it can switch paths in case of on error and log some error message to Window's event log, but that's it. No GUI, CLI or other feature.

It's free while Secure Path costs money. On the other hand: the migration from Secure Path to MPIO will not be free either...

Re: MPIO/DSM versus Secure Path

Steven Clementi — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 10:01:02 GMT

Eric:

1 - Pros/Cons of using MPIO
Pros: No cost, easy to implement/install
Cons: only Basic MPIO supported on EVA5000(as stated earlier), no gui or mmc plug-in to control pathing, no load balancing (as far as I can remember)

2 - Pros/Cons of staying with Secure Path
Pros: Already installed and working, web gui based administration, load balancing
Cons: high cost, more administration work to get SPM working,

3 - Suggested readings in regards to MPIO and Secure Path

Secure Path Web Page - http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/sanworks/secure-path/index.html

Other Multipath Options page - http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/sanworks/multipathoptions/index.html

4 - Real World experiences - do you guys like/dislike one or the other

Personally, I like MPIO better and would be the choice multipath software to use if I was performing a new installation. For an upgrade, I am not really sure if it is worth the trouble since 1. you already invested all that money into SP, 2. I assume the environment is stable and multipathing is working properly, 3. why disturb a working environment.

Now, if you were going to be adding servers into the environment...I would definitely NOT waste more money on SecurePath, but then you would have a mixed environment and it might be worth it to migrate. Just remember your potentially moving to multipath software with no user control from something that is user controlable.

Also, remember.... SP and MPIO basic can NOT co-exist. To upgrade, you would need to remove SP first, reboot and install MPIO Basic.

Steven