MSA1000 with 2*SAN Switch 2/8

[Karthik S S]

Hi,

I setup a MSA1000 with 2 san 2/8 switches and MSA has only one controller. My question is with one controller on the MSA can we use both the switches to access the storage?? Do we have to do any uplink from switch 1 to switch 2?

Because, whatever hosts connected to the switch 2 on the right hand side (from rear side of MSA) are not able to access MSA. The Switch readiness LED on this switch is glowing with a steady yellow. When I checked the over all switch status from the fabric OS it showed Healthy/OK but port 0 (which is the interanl port) seems to be offline.

Portshow 0 shows,

Switch:admin> portshow 0
portName:
portFlags: 0x2024041 portLbMod: 0x0 PRESENT U_PORT SCN LED WAS_EPORT
portType: 4.1
portState: 2 Offline
portPhys: 5 No_Sync
portScn: 2 Offline
portRegs: 0x81000000
portData: 0x102def00
portId: 010000
portWwn: 20:00:00:60:69:ca:2f:c1
portWwn of device(s) connected: None
Distance: normal
Speed: Negotiating

Interrupts: 109918 Link_failure: 0 Frjt: 0

Unknown: 0 Loss_of_sync: 109919 Fbsy: 0

Lli: 109918 Loss_of_sig: 0
Proc_rqrd: 0 Protocol_err: 0
Timed_out: 0 Invalid_word: 0
Rx_flushed: 0 Invalid_crc: 0
Tx_unavail: 0 Delim_err: 0
Free_buffer: 0 Address_err: 0
Overrun: 0 Lr_in: 0
Suspended: 0 Lr_out: 0
Parity_err: 0 Ols_in: 0
Ols_out: 0
Switch:admin>

Pl. help.

Thanks,
Karthik S S

[Karthik S S]

Uwe, are you there?? :-(

-Karthik S S

[Karthik S S]

Uwe,

I went through your previous posts on the similar issue at,

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=462147

but I am still not clear. If I have one MSA controller and 2 * SAN switches connected to the rear of the MSA can I use all the 14 ports? or do I need to cascade these switches?

Thanks,
Karthik S S

[Uwe Zessin · Accepted solution]

Hello Karthik,

one of the ports of the internal switch is directly connected to the controller bay - there is no internal link between the switches. You have to use an external cable to cascade the switches which leaves you with 12 ports. The QuickSpecs still mention that the second internal switch is for redundancy. On the other hand: I was on a HP event last week and when the same situation was discussed nobody said it was not supported, so I guess you are OK, here.

Remember to assign different domain-IDs to the switches:

switch:admin> switchdisable
...
switch:admin> configure

Configure...

Fabric parameters (yes, y, no, n): [no] y <==

Domain: (1..239) [1] <==

(answer the remaining questions with [enter])

Portlog events enable (yes, y, no, n): [no]
Committing configuration...done.
switch:admin>
switch:admin> switchenable

[Karthik S S]

Hi Uwe,

How are you doing? I guess you are little busy these days.

Thanks a lot after setting the domain ID it worked. What is the relevance of the domain ID? I thought since these 2 switches will be in same fabric they need to be in same domain.

Thanks,
Karthik S S

[Uwe Zessin]

Karthik,
yes, I am not bored ;-)

I guess the name 'domain' might be a bit missleading. The domain ID becomes part of the fibre channel address and is used in other situations, too! If you connect two switches with the same ID the fabrics will not merge - the port LED will blink slowly green and a message is written to the console.

Try it out if your schedule allows it: this is a great chance to play with it until it's in regular use.