EVA 3K/5K LUN presentation problem (Windows 2000)

[Nicole Angelis]

Hi All,

Here is my dilemma.. We are an HP-UX only shop, however, two windows 2000 servers have been thrown in the mix. We have an EVA5000 and an EVA3000 and a SAN. Since I pretty much manage the SAN and the storage, it is my responsibility to get the two windows servers configured to work with the EVA.

The HP-UX systems have never had a problem with either of the disk arrays, but windows is a totally different story.

One of the windows server has Secure Path installed and the other one does not (yet).

On the server which does not have SP installed, in the device manager the HSV controllers appear under "Other Devices" with a "?" next to them, they appears(4) times (2 FP per HSV).

The system which has SP installed does not show the HSV controllers under "Other Devices", but I can' seem to find them anywhere in the device manager.

The EVA does see the WWN for both of the servers and can do lun presentation to both hosts.

On the server without SP I am able to present a lun and it shows up under the disk manager. I am able to create a partition, and format it, and windows even assigns a drive letter. Howerver, I am not able to get the disk to show up under the Windows Explorer. Under MS-MSDOS console I type G: (Which is the drive letter), but says "Cannot find the drive specified" I have rebooted, but still no luck.

On the system which has SP, I can never get the LUN presented to it to appear in the Disk Manager.

Can someone shed some light as to the proper way to configure windows servers to use the EVA? Also, what is the proper way to present a LUN to a windows server and utilize that virtual disk without rebooting? Also, I can't for the life of me, figure out how to get windows to show the WWN for a FC interface. Is there something similar to fcmsutil?

Please forgive my ignorance on windows.


Thanks!
-Nicole

[Tanapong Eamsoponkul_1]

I have 2 Question

1. Which Secure Path version ?
2. Did you install Secure Path (SP) after or before you present the LUNs to That Server (Server taht install SP) ?

[SAKET_5 · Accepted solution]

Hi Nicole,

From my experience with EVA 5K, LUN presentation to Windows is fairly straightforward. If you could reply to the following questions, we can hopefully pinpoint the step that you are possibly missing:
1. Whats the EVA VCS version? I would not suspect this to be an issue, we are running 3.0.20.
2. Whats the server model, Proliant DL380, MLxx, etc?
3. What FCA model are you using, Qlogic/Emulex?
4. What driver version for the FCA are you using?

In brief, the process should be this simple:
1. Install the supported hardware i.e. FCAs etc on the server
2. Load the correct driver
3. Generally, you should be able to view the FCA WWID using the FCA BIOS utility as well as OS level vendor tools, eg. LPutil, etc.
Other alternative is, on your name server on the switch, when the FCA does a port login, you should be able to see its port WWID if you know the switch port number to which its connected to.
4. Configure your aliases and zones on the SAN fabrics
5. Create a host name and present Vdisks to the host via Command View EVA
6. On your Windows host, install the latest Platform Kit for the EVA.
7. Install the latest Secure Path V4.0C and its SP1.

Hope it helps,
Saket.

[Steven Clementi]

SAKET (and Nicole):

I would make your numbers 6 and 7... number 2 and 3. This should be done BEFORE attaching the FCA's to the fibre switches. Once rebooted, you can/should then connect fibre cables and allow yours hosts to find and load drivers for the different resources being presented.

Thinks to keep in mind... Without the right platform kit, the host might not detect the HSV controllers even though the EVA "see's" the host WWID's and as such, the host would never recognize any vdisks being presented to it until the controlelrs are properlty detected.

Based on the info provided, it sounds like you have partial Platform kit / Secure Path installations. The first box with SP doesn't seem to have the device information file to properly catagorize the HSV Controllers and the second box does not have SP and possibly the same issue with the Platform Kit (except for the fact that you don't see ANY HSV's at all which is somewhat weird.


Questions:

1. What kind of SAN Switches do you have? and have you properly zoned the servers?

2. Secure Path 4.0c SP1? and Platform Kit F? or E?

3. Any of the other questions posed. It would be great to get a better picture.


Get the correct platform kit here (If need be)...
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?pnameOID=321354&locale=en_US&taskId=135&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=321347


Steven

[Nicole Angelis]

Hi all,

Thanks for all your help.

Here is more information as requested.

The servers are both DL380s, I don'w know what kind of FC HBA is in the servers since I can't physically open the box to look at the HBA (not now anyway), but the device manager recognizes the card as "StorageWorks 64-bit/66-MHz Fibre Host Bus Adapter". The drivers used by the card are CPQFCALM.SYS and CPQFCFTR.SYS. I don't know if it can be determined whether the cards are Qlogic or Emulex.

The version of secure path installed in one server is 4.0C SP1. The VCS revision is 3.014. The FC switches we are using are 16 port brocade switches.

I just noticed that the problem on the server where I have secure path installed may be a zoning problem. I didn't create the zones for the windows servers and from what I can see so far, it looks like zone is not properly configured for this server and the EVA.

Here is a detailed description of the problem on the server which is properly zoned and does not have secure path installed.

On EVA
1. Create vdisk
2. Present vdisk

On Windows Server (W/O Secure Path)

1. Run Scan Disk Manager
2. Newly presented vdisk shows as a disk with status set to "offline"
3. Write signature on newly presented vdisk
4. Diskdisk shows up online
5. Create primary partition
6. format
7. Windows assigns drive letter
8. partition shows up healthy

Now if I go to Windows Explorer the disk doesn't show up. If I open a DOS console and type G: or whatever the assigned drive letter is, it still cannot see the new disk.

On disk manager if I right click on the volume and choose properties, it shows capacity of 50GB and 0MB unallocated. Which is normal since the vdisk presented is 50GB and the entire vdisk is used as a single partition. Now, here is where it gets confusing. If I right-click on the partition itself (not the volume) and choose properties it shows up with used space of 0MB and free space of 0MB and a capacity of 0MB.

If I go to device manager and rescan hardware,under Disk Drive I see (6) instances of "COMPAQ HSV110(C) COMPAQ SCSI DISK DEVICE"

Which is not surprising since Secure Path is not installed.

I could be wrong, but the fact that Secure path is not installed in this system shouldn't be causing any problems. I would just have more than one device path per vdisk to deal with. Or is it required in Windows?

Is Secure Path required before you can install a platform kit?

I am trying to install 3.0F on the system without secure path, but the options I get are only to update Emulex Driver, update Qlogic Driver, Install SSSU or install HBA Anywhere.

Whether I choose to install/update the Emulex driver or the Qlogic driver I get the same message:

"The software will not be installed on this system because the required hardware is not present in the system or the software/firmware doesn't apply to this system"

I hope this gives you all a little more info.

Again thanks alot for your help.

Thanks!
-Nicole

[Steven Clementi]

That looks like the default driver (in some instances) that windows loads for the hba.

The proper order of software installation is...


1. Install your FCA drivers from the platform Kit CD. You don't necessarily need the SSSU.

2. Reboot (Not really necessary) and install Secure Path and the SP. Reboot again.

3. Connect FCA's to switches and hosts should detect devices and load drivers for them. (As long as the zoning allows for it).



Since you are having some trouble with your fibre cards, you can try to install HBAnywhere to see if it recognizes them
. Of course, you need the right drives for it to work. (I think)


It is possible you do not have the proper FCA's. You may have to pull them out and look at the markings/text on the card itself to determine what model then are then check compatibility.

Are you using cards that you would normally use in an HP-UX machine? If so, they probably will not work correctly and could be the cause of all the issues your having.



Steven

[Uwe Zessin]

I have to agree with Steven. It looks like the servers are loaded with some very old fibre channel adapters that are only good for the RA4000/4100 storage arrays - at least the device driver names suggest this.

[SAKET_5]

Hi Nicole,

I agree with Steve in that you should confirm things in sequence, the FCA (HBA), the FW on it, driver,correct zoning, platform kit and the latest Secure Path Version which is 4.0C + SP1.

To check the FCA model, you can either reboot the host and normally during POST, you should see a menu option to get into the BIOS for the FCA (e.g. press CTRL + Q to get into Qlogic FCA Utility), there you should be able to get some information. Else just take the card out and find it.

Other than that, there should not be a lot where you can get it wrong.

good luck.

[Bissek01]

Hi There,

I wondered if you ever solved this problem as we have the same issue. If you did would you please let me know.

Many thanks