topic Re: MSA1000 + Zoning in MSA Storage

MSA1000 + Zoning

Celso Narita — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 09:50:50 GMT

Hi all,
I'm new on HP solutions and I'm experiencing some problems with backups. I've been told that configuring zoning on my MSA1000 should help.
I have here 5 servers conected to the SAN switch through HBA boards and on the same swith I have a MSL6000 Library and a StorageWorks 1000. The idea is to separate the library and the storage on different zones.
Im using Data Protector 5.10 as backup solution and 3 of the 5 servers is configured as media agent. All those 5 servers must access the storage.
From reading a documentation about zoning I made these steps:

1) Identify devices

port 0 - 10:00:00:00:c9:38:a5:c0 - SERVER1 (media agent)
port 1 - none
port 2 - 10:00:00:e0:02:22:5e:10 - MSL6000
port 3 - 50:08:05:f3:00:0b:88:f1 - SW1000
port 4 - 21:00:00:e0:8b:14:27:1f - SERVER2
port 5 - 10:00:00:00:c9:39:0c:21 - SERVER3 (media agent)
port 6 - 10:00:00:00:c9:39:17:87 - SERVER4
port 7 - 10:00:00:00:c9:39:0d:08 - SERVER5 (media agent)

2) Configuring the zones:

aliCreate "MSL6000","10:00:00:e0:02:22:5e:10"
aliCreate "SW1000","50:08:05:f3:00:0b:88:f1"
aliCreate "SERVER1","10:00:00:00:c9:38:a5:c0"
aliCreate "SERVER2","21:00:00:e0:8b:14:27:1f"
aliCreate "SERVER3","10:00:00:00:c9:39:0c:21"
aliCreate "SERVER4","10:00:00:00:c9:39:17:87"
aliCreate "SERVER5","10:00:00:00:c9:39:0d:08"

zoneCreate "Storage", "SW1000;SERVER1;SERVER2;SERVER3;SERVER4;SERVER5"
zoneCreate "Backup", "MSL6000;SERVER1;SERVER3;SERVER5"

cfgCreate "Zone", "Storage;Backup"

cfgEnable "Zone"

So, the questions are: Is that right? Am I missing some important step? Am I totally wrong :P ?

Re: MSA1000 + Zoning

Ningpa — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 02:36:48 GMT

The way the zoning has been done means there is a potential for HBAs to to try and log into each other and potentially cause timeouts. I would suggest you do single HBA initiator zoning. This means each server HBA will be in its one zone. It is a lot of typing but it minimises errors and unforeseen problems.

So your zones will be:

Storage_srv1 which will include:
sw1000, server1

Storage_srv2:
sw1000, server2

storage_srv3:
sw1000, server3

Storage_srv4:
sw1000, server4

Storage_srv5:
sw1000, server5

Backup_srv1:
MSL6000, server1

Backup_srv3:
MSL6000, server3

Backup_srv5:
MSL6000, server5

Obviously you do not have to use the same zone names. These are just to explain what I mean.

Your zone set will then include all the above zones.

Have all your servers got single HBAs or single port HBAs? If you had 2 HBAs per server, you could set up redundancy but that will assume that you have 2 SAN fibre switches and the MSA1000 has got 2 controllers.

Hope this helps,

Ningpa

Re: MSA1000 + Zoning

Celso Narita — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 14:29:43 GMT

Yes, Im using single HBA on each server. I made the configuration, the access to storage is working fine, but my backups stopped :(

Error on Data Protector is: Cannot open exchanger control device (device driver is loaded)

Im not sure if it has something to do with the zoning configuration, seems more like Data Protector's problem. MSL 6000 Medium Changer is already disabled in device manager.
Can anyone help me plz? :)

Re: MSA1000 + Zoning

Celso Narita — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 15:34:29 GMT

Solved. After zoning configuration all SCSI addressess changed, and I had to reconfigure it in Data Protector, it's everything working fine now.