MSA2000 host port setup

[RichardJ]

Gene,
Using SAN switches, I pulled cables, shutdown MSA2000 controllers one at a time and VMWare kept on going.
The only thing we noticed is that VMWare doesn't failover over the paths, so this means that the surviving controller is presenting the WWN's of the dead controller and the LUNs of that controller.
VMWare hosts just keeps on going, but the dead path never fails.
I need to go on a course to understand what is happening.
Any comments anyone (Uwe)?

[Gene Laoyan]

Richard, can you enlighten me on how you "shutdown MSA2000 controllers"? I would like to try it. Make it the "Dummies" version so I don't screw it up.....lol.

Thanks

[RichardJ]

On the MSA2000 web interface, click:
Manage
restart
choose a controller to shutdown.

have a good weekend...

[Uwe Zessin]

> The only thing we noticed is that VMWare doesn't failover over the paths,

I don't have an MSA2000fc to try, but if I understand the architecture correctly, you should have only two paths: Port_0 and Port_1 of the controller which is presenting the volume. You can failover between these paths only.

From what I understand: a controller failover should be transparent. In that case, there can be no 'dead paths'.


Can you supply us with the output of a few commands from the service console before and after a 'controller failover'?

ESX multipathing:
# esxcfg-mpath -l

Status information from the Fibre Channel adapter - for Qlogic it is something like:
# find /proc/scsi/qla2300/[0-9] -ls -exec cat {} \;

Sorry, I don't know what the correct command is if you have an Emulex adapter - I think it uses 'lpfc'.

....
If you could run the command immediately after the failover. Then force I/O to the VMFS:

+----
# for f in /vmfs/volumes/[0-9]*; do echo $f; touch $f/write.tmp; rm -f $f/write.tmp; done
-----

and finally run the commands again, it could be interesting, too, thanks!

[Gene Laoyan]

I was finally pointed to the right direction by our HP Enterprise Account Manager.
By default the MSA2212fc is actually Active/Pasive. To correct this, you have to enable controller interconnect. Follow directions below...
To change the host port interconnect setting:
1. Select Manage > General Config > Host Port Configuration.
2. In the Advanced Options panel, click Change FC Port Interconnect Settings.
The Host Port Configuration panel displays the current interconnect setting.
3. Set Internal Host Port Interconnect to Interconnected (enabled) or Straight-through
(disabled).
The default is Straight-through.
This setting affects all host ports on both controllers.
4. Click Save And Continue.
The main Host Port Configuration page is displayed.

This can be found in page 56 of the document found here: http://bizsupport.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01394283/c01394283.pdf

Thanks

[Gene Laoyan]

Uwe, I tested path failures on our current config and ESX's multipathing kept the disk up. When I went to mange path it automatically switched paths. I think this will work for us now.

[Tiago Andrade e Silva]

Gene,
How did you tested path failures?
"interconnect" is only used in direct fiber connection from host to storage controller like your environment and I think it doesn't get any different then before because you still don't see all LUNs (on same vDisk) from both controllers at the same time. At least that's what I understand from page 41 in the same manual: ports 0 and 1 (from different controllers) are internally connected but only used when there's a failure with one controller (states the manual). Am I missing something?

I would like to call your attention to the following quote from Q&A HP web site regarding the MSA2000fc dual controller product:
Q2. What does dual "Active/Active" controllers mean?
A2. It means both controllers are ready to process I/Os and provide redundancy. If a controller fails the second controller can handle the I/O requests until the failed controller is brought back online.

This is not the same two controllers beeing able to "control" or "see" the same volumes at the same time. Not the usual and "normal" active/active storage controller configuration.

Regards,
RC

[Tiago Andrade e Silva]

Uwe,

>you should have only two paths: Port_0 and Port_1 of the controller which is >presenting the volume. You can failover between these paths only.

You're right! For example the paths I see in ESX1 are:
* vmhba1:0 (Controller A, port 0)
* vmhba2:1 (Controller A, port 1)
This is for controller A as "owner" and a dual HBA on host. SCSI target 0 only on HBA1 and SCSI target 1 only HBA2. Switched configuration. Only one path per HBA.

Regards,
RC

[Tom Lyczko]

Would anyone please be willing to comment on how this would apply to our dual controller MSA 2012i (iSCSI) with hardware HBAs (QLogic) and ESX/vSphere 4.0??

Should I look at setting up our 2012i to active/passive so VMware's own embedded multi-pathing will work with this SAN??

HP requires me to buy new hardware iSCSI HBA cards to use our 2012i with ESX 4.0, sigh.

Thank you, Tom

[Jorge Pons]

HI

In my case, I have 2 ESX 4.0 Vsphere and 1 MSA2012fc, in direct connection (loop) but I don´t know where I enable host port interconnection. I dont see the option in SMU.
Some one tell me where enable?

Thanks in advance