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Re: iSCSI - MSA2012i Dual Controllers

 
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kragster
Occasional Advisor

iSCSI - MSA2012i Dual Controllers

Hello HP people :)
I am all new to MSA storage and have a couple of problems getting my iSCSI connections up and running. Hope someone can help.

My setup is: (As the attached image)

Two DL380G5 servers as datahosts with two dual network cards each.

Two HP MSA 2012i dual controller: one with SAS disks and one with SATA disks.

Two ProCurve 1800-24G switches.

All connected as pr. the attached image.

The SATA storage seems to be working fine with all four iSCSI host ports mapped as persistant targets in the iSCSI initiator. As long as I keep each controllers ports on the same subnet this seems to be working fine.

The SAS storage is giving me problems. I can not discover all four host ports using the initiator software, only one on each controller and these seems to change from time to time. Sometimes I can discover A0 and B0 and other times its A1 and B1. I have checked and double checked all cables and switches and I am getting crazy here.

Regards
Lars Kragh
7 REPLIES 7
kragster
Occasional Advisor

Re: iSCSI - MSA2012i Dual Controllers

For some reason I couldnt see the attachment..
Uwe Zessin
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: iSCSI - MSA2012i Dual Controllers

The normal way to configure an MSA2012i is to put the host ports of a controller into different subnets [are you using class-C networks?], but the host needs proper access to both networks (I, too, did have some initial problems when I first set up a VMware ESX server to access an MSA2012I).

The MSA2000 generation 1 disk presentation is very different from many other arrays on this planet: it does not use active/passive or ALUA paths.

In other words: only the controller which is managing a vdisk is presenting the volumes on its host ports. If the SAS MSA has only one vdisk, you don't see volumes on the non-owning controller.
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kragster
Occasional Advisor

Re: iSCSI - MSA2012i Dual Controllers

Hi Uwe,
Yes we are using class C. The datahosts is using teamed NICS as per the drawing:

SAS: iSCSI Team 1 = 172.27.1.11
iSCSI Team 2 = 172.27.2.61

SATA: iSCSI Team 1 = 172.27.3.11
iSCSI Team 2 = 172.27.4.161

I read in the user manual that each data host port should use a different IP on a different subnet, thus four subnets for two MSAs.
My original intent was to assign each of the two controllers in the SAS MSA an IP on both subnets like this:

MSA Controller A: port0: 172.27.1.1
port1: 172.27.2.11

MSA Controller B: port0: 172.27.1.2
port1: 172.27.2.51
But with this configuration I can only discover one target on each controller. Any idea why?



Uwe Zessin
Honored Contributor

Re: iSCSI - MSA2012i Dual Controllers

> thus four subnets for two MSAs.

Huh? You can certainly don't need two separate subnets for each MSA!

> But with this configuration I can only discover one target on each controller.

What does the volume mapping look like? I don't have an MSA2000i with me, but am sure you have to do two mappings (one per host ports).
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kragster
Occasional Advisor

Re: iSCSI - MSA2012i Dual Controllers

>What does the volume mapping look like? I >don't have an MSA2000i with me, but am sure >you have to do two mappings (one per host >ports).

Volume mapping? I meant discovering the iSCSI ports using the iSCSI Initiator software. I havent even created any vdiscs yet.

Could someone please have a look at the attachment and comment on if this IP configuration and infrastructure should work? I am sure this is an IP issue. As I stated earlier I can only discover one port on each controller using this setup, but I cant understand why.

Niels Vejrup Pedersen
Respected Contributor

Re: iSCSI - MSA2012i Dual Controllers

Hello Lars,

You should take a look at the Reference Guide.

There you'll find recommendation on switch setup.

You are probably better off using one subnet for the P0 ports and another for P1 ports.

Not four in total.

Under normal circumstances you connect Controller 1 P0 to Switch1 and P1 to Switch2
Controller 2 P0 to Switch1 and P1 to Switch2

I would not recommend connecting the two swithces since you can risk one switch failure taking down the other.

Regards,
kragster
Occasional Advisor

Re: iSCSI - MSA2012i Dual Controllers

Hi Niels,
Thank you for taking a look at it. According to the user guide each controller should connected to both switches. I am going to have a go at setting it up according to the new drawing (see attachment) and see if I can discover the iSCSI targets.