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Re: MPIO on AIX 5.3 with XP1024 HP storage disks

 
LevanOL
New Member

MPIO on AIX 5.3 with XP1024 HP storage disks

A customer of mine is trying to install such a config ; pseries server (AIX 5.3) using 2 physical hbas connected to switch connected to a XP1024 HP storage disks. He wants to make MPIO works with multipathing in load balance mode. Anyone has any info on such a config? Does a PCM (Path Control Module) have to be provided by HP to make it work? Or, the only supported solution is to use additional software like autopath?
thx!!
8 REPLIES 8
LevanOL
New Member

Re: MPIO on AIX 5.3 with XP1024 HP storage disks

Well .... forget it!
I found the solution to make it work so don't hesitate to ask if any question on similar config!
System Administrator_12
Occasional Advisor

Re: MPIO on AIX 5.3 with XP1024 HP storage disks

I'm very interested in your solution. We are using an HP XP512 and are looking to configure the SAN disks on an AIX 5.2 server using identical HBAs. Looking to multipath disks for application as well as boot disks. Would like to boot off SAN and eliminate internal disk?
hua_1
Frequent Advisor

Re: MPIO on AIX 5.3 with XP1024 HP storage disks

i have almost the same config with u, 2 p650 connected to xp128 via san swith.
now i have some quesiton:
1. is addistional software like autopath for aix necessary?
2. does MPIOS support XP128?
3. can u give me more infomation about ur solution?
4. AIX need any patch in order to connected to xp128?
hope i could get ur help
LevanOL
New Member

Re: MPIO on AIX 5.3 with XP1024 HP storage disks

Oki, sorry for late answer but i had to handle a couple of other pbs ...
The main pb here is that it seems the solution is not supported yet by any of both vendor ...
The solution is based on the fact that the internal disks in XP are in fact Hitachi disks (9980V) and that Hitachi disks are supported!! So you have to "hack" the odm; If one is not familiar with odm, forget it since it can be irreversible ... backup it before any modifications. If odm is not modified, you should see Other FC disks and no MPIO FC disks recognized.
To check which disks are supported:
odmget -qattribute=mpio_model_map PdAt | grep deflt
There you must take just the Hitachi stanza using and greping HITACHI:
odmget -qattribute=mpio_model_map PdAt | grep -p deflt
You just have to had a stanza for HP using the current one for Hitachi.
Copy the Hitachi stanza (starting by PdAt: ...) in a file (/tmp/odm.modif)
In this file, you must modify the words HITACHI by HP<><><><><> where <> is a blank space: it is important to have 6 blank after HP and before next info.
When modified, save the file and had the stanza in the odm with odmadd /tmp/odm.modif
When done, you can discard old discovered disks and run cfgmgr;
The new disks are discovered as "MPIO FC Other disks" and are fully taken as MPIO capable. You can then modify the different policy for health check, error handling ...etc.
Try to install the latest mpio and FC drivers.
We asked HP for a PCM for full functional Multipathing but no answer yet ...
This solution is a bypass but it works ...
LevanOL
New Member

Re: MPIO on AIX 5.3 with XP1024 HP storage disks

A piece of information that could have help at the very beginning ...
HP provides its own PCM (this was the very first question in fact) for its XP disks.
It comes with the CD code from HP.
The fileset provided is devices.fcp.disk.HP.xparray.mpio.rte
This provides full support for MPIO and prevents from manipulating odm ...
BUT... this module seems to be supported only on AIX5.2 and no HACMP support.
If you're in such a config (AIX5.2 and no HACMP), one should install this PCM for MPIO support.

Re: MPIO on AIX 5.3 with XP1024 HP storage disks

Hi, That is a very interesting information ... We are using XP-512 and AIX 5.2 but were told by all our HP contacts that HP will NOT develop PCM for this environment ... So we ended up using AIX "native" MPIO solution . Question is - where and how could we get this PCM then !

Tadeusz Wiewiorowski, CBC Toronto
LevanOL
New Member

Re: MPIO on AIX 5.3 with XP1024 HP storage disks

Ho, sorry for getting back so late ....
The module can be found on the CD that HP provides you for XP512 microcode update.
We actually found it on the latest firmware update CD for the XP1024.
George Kinman
New Member

Re: MPIO on AIX 5.3 with XP1024 HP storage disks

The AIX support is on the XP firmware CD, in the tool_pack/odm directory. I'm looking for a newer support pack for AIX 6.1 for the MPIO functionality. My customer has a similar config with pseries server (AIX 6.1) connected to a XP12000. I'm told the latest firmware release isn't available for sale, so the customer is running with the AIX version of MPIO which is limited. If you have info on where to get the ODM/MPIO files for AIX 6.1, please let me know, thanks. The latest firmware CD is listed on HP partsurfer but isn't available. http://partsurfer.hp.com/Search.aspx?searchText=ae002-67047