HPswsp LUN masking with autopath

[John Roberts_1]

Hello,
We've installed Securepath3.0F using the active-active option. We are communicating with an EVA800. Does anyone know how to enable LUN masking or Selective Storage Presentation. Our problem is that ioscan and autopath display 8 paths for every lun (this is MESSY at best). The previous versions of secure path and EVA5000's did provide LUN masking.

The host is an RP4440, 8 way, with dual HP Tachyon XL2 FC adaptors, HPUX 11.11v1
Thanks

[Sandy Chen]

Hi John,

Have you updated your securepath3.0F to at least release 18 Nov '05, because the EVA4000/6000/8000 was added on that release

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=471465&prodNameId=1825336&swEnvOID=7&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=co-36885-1

regards,
Sandy

[Uwe Zessin]

The EVA8000's SSP works the same way like on the EVA5000.

> autopath display 8 paths for every lun (this is MESSY at best).

It is MESSY, but that is how AUTOPATH works :-(

Unlike Secure Path for Active/Passive arrays, it does not create a new pseudo adapter showing only one device.

[John Roberts_1]

All,

thanks for the reply. We heard back from "storage" tech support. Autopath does not provide "LUN Masking" unlike securepath.

Autopath only works on the EVA8000, however, you can install and use securepath on the same host to communicate with an EVA5000 (or older model EVA and it does perform lun masking )

John

[Uwe Zessin]

Even Secure Path "classic" (for Active/Passive arrays) does not deliver true "LUN masking" - you can still see the device paths using |ioscan|, but it implements a filter driver that provides a new device. This component comes from the old DEC/Compaq world.

The AutoPath component of today's Secure Path product is from the original HP line and used to provide support for their traditional VA and XP storage arrays.

[krusty]

There is a bit of confusion in this thread,and hopefully this can clear it up.

"LUN masking" is a industry standard term for allowing certain hosts access to a LUN. It has nothing to do with the number of presentations of a LUN on a the host, only if the host has access to the LUN (or more specically the HBA on the host). Compaq coined it "Selective Storage Presentation", while HP uses the verbiage "Secure LUN Manager". This are both ARRAY based products.

Compaq and HP both had HOST based multipathing solutions for operating systems that could not manage multipaths to a LUN (Also alllow load balancing). Compaq's was called Secure Path, while HP called theirs Autopath. Upon the merger, a choice was made to use the Secure Path name, so Autopath no longer is sold (Well, actually it is, but was renamed Secure Path, same bits as before). Windows is an example of a OS that cannot handle multiple paths without a add-on product. HP-UX LVM can handle this with the PV Links. However, the EVA is a active/passive device, therefore SecurePath was required.

What the legacy Secure Path for the EVA 3000/5000 (active/passive) controllers did was create a pseudo device for the volume manager. It was the one with the 255/255 path. The others were still visable on the ioscan, but you could not use them, due the the active/passive design of the array. On the EVA 4/6/8K, this is no longer a restriction. The controllers are active/active, so any of these are viable.

My only recommedadtion to you is that you set the LUN presentation to one of the controllers (preferred), and then use that path as your primary path in LVM. Otherwise, you -- could -- suffer some performance problems (if you flood the mirror ports).

Hope this clears some of the "magic" up.

Cheers,

Curt