topic Re: windows boot from SAN upgrade basic MPIO to full MPIO in Disk Enclosures

windows boot from SAN upgrade basic MPIO to full MPIO

mgtow — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:10:44 GMT

My blades are currently booting from SAN with Windows 2003 x86 and x64 to an EVA 5000 [3.110] esing basic HP MPIO.

I will soon be migrating all of the data to an EVA8100 using Continuous Access.

I have viewed the HP MPIO Full Featured DSM EVA4x00/6x00/8x00 family of Disk Arrays 3.01.00 Installation and Reference guide which describes upgrade steps for HP MPIO of a stand alone and clustered systems However, there was no procedures listed if you boot Windows from SAN.

Can anyone tell me the best practice I should follow to move my Windows boot from SAN blades to my new EVA?

I was thinking I would perform the following steps.
shut down Windows blade
unzone blade from EVA5000
zone blade for EVA8100
Command View EVA EVA8100, present vdisks to blade
boot up blade
upgrade MPIO

thanks in advance

Re: windows boot from SAN upgrade basic MPIO to full MPIO

Uwe Zessin — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:19:31 GMT

The basic MPIO does not provide coexistence with any other MPIO.

I would first configure a singe-path access to the EVA-5000 (make sure you hit the controller that owns the virtual disk). Then un-install the basic MPIO and reboot.

Replicate the disk to the EVA8100 and boot single-path from the 8100. Install the full-featured MPIO and MMC plugin. Configure the remaining paths and do a reboot to be sure all paths are recognized fine and everything works.

Re: windows boot from SAN upgrade basic MPIO to full MPIO

IBaltay — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:31:26 GMT

Hi,
the san design guide p.192 lists windows supported windows multipathin coexistence matrix:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00403562/c00403562.pdf?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

from that you can see that the mpio basic for the eva 3k/5k (3110) can coexist with mpio ff for eva 4k/6k/8k (e.g. 6110) and thus giving you the opportunity to nicely CA migrate all relevant VDISKS to new EVA and then shut down the server and do the CA failover to the new EVA (the failover means that roles of the primary and secondary VDISKs swap and then you can try to boot the servers now from Active/Active EVA...

Re: windows boot from SAN upgrade basic MPIO to full MPIO

Uwe Zessin — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:46:51 GMT

I don't have high-speed download capability right now to check that link...

If it is document number AA-RW86Z-TE (January 26, 2009), then page 192 contains the HP-UX matrix. This thread is about Windows and if I am reading the Windows matrix on page 214 correctly, there is NO coexistence.

Re: windows boot from SAN upgrade basic MPIO to full MPIO

IBaltay — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:04:10 GMT

Uwe,
the page number is different (214), but i see it as supported :-) with 4k/6k/8k (minimum XCS6110) and not supported with 3k/5k (VCS4x), so I will check it...

Re: windows boot from SAN upgrade basic MPIO to full MPIO

IBaltay — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:19:54 GMT

Hi,
the following coexistences are supported:
MPIO FF for EVA 4k/6k/8k coexistence on the same server :
a) Secure Path, YES
b) HP MPIO Full Featured DSM for EVA3000/5000 VCS 4.xxx, YES
c) HP MPIO Full Featured DSM for MSA1000/1500
(Active-Active), YES
d) HP MPIO basic failover for EVA arrays, YES
e) HP MPIO basic failover for XP arrays, No
f) MS DSM, Yes

Re: windows boot from SAN upgrade basic MPIO to full MPIO

mgtow — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:24:54 GMT

Thank both for your quick responses!

So with both basic and full able to coexist in Windows at the same time, I should be able to:

Shutdown my blades
Perform the CA failover
Rezone and update Command View for the eva8100
Boot up the blades
Upgrade MPIO and reboot

Re: windows boot from SAN upgrade basic MPIO to full MPIO

IBaltay — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:32:11 GMT

To reduce the downtime to minimum

1. Add new host/eva8100 zones, update Command View for the eva8100
(online no downtime)

2. install the MPIO FF (coexistence with the MPIO basic)
(online no downtime)

3. Shutdown my blades
(short downtime)

4. Perform the CA failover
(several minutes of downtime)

5. Boot up the blades

Re: windows boot from SAN upgrade basic MPIO to full MPIO

mgtow — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:39:27 GMT

Thanks