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Re: Setting up a New SAN

 
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KUSD
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Setting up a New SAN

I am trying to setup a SAN system but I am getting stuck because my server does not seem to be recognizing the storage system.  This is new ground for me so I suspect I am missing something simple.  Any assistance would be greatly appriciated.

 

Server: Proliant DL380 G7

OS: Windows 2008 R2

HBA: Brocade 825 FC HBA

SAN: HP Storage P2000 G3 FC MSA DUAL Controller LFF

 

The Brocade is in the device manager as an HBA as opposed to a network adapter and the status says the device is working properly.  Its connections are not showing up in the network connections as available ports.  I am guessing this is normal since the device is an HBA as opposed to a NIC.

 

The Brocade has two fiber ports.  I have one connected to each of the MSA controllers in the P2000.  Using the setup disk that came with the SAN, I installed the updates appropriate for this system.  I have enabled the built in MPIO manager that is in W2k8.  I tried to manually add the device to the MPIO manager.  I have ran the mpclaim command to find and add the SAN (it does not seem to find or add it).  I installed the MSA Device Discovery Tool.  I went though the installation instuctions in the user guide, however when I run discovery tool, is still does not find the SAN.  Both the server and the SAN seem to recognize there is a fiber connection, they won't recognize each other over it. 

 

I have gone through it a coulple times trying to find what I missed.  I have ran programs as admin.  I have tried all the fiber ports on the SAN (each MSA has two).  I swapped out the fiber cables in case they were bad.  I have tried manually running some of the setup commands that the install wizard does automatically.  I can access the CLI for the SAN using it's USB connection.  I can access the SAN via it's web interface if I directly connect the two via an ethernet cable.  I tried to find a setting it there that i may need to set for the fiber to pick up, but it just says it is functioning.  I have tried to see if I could a solution or someone with a similar problem on the forums. 

 

What am I missing?  Is the SAN only accessable via network connections and I need the Brocade to work as a NIC?  Do I need to setup a LUN on the SAN first via my copper connection before discovery tool will pick it up on the FC?  Is there some basic step or concept I am missing, or is there something wrong with the system?

6 REPLIES 6
Steven Clementi
Honored Contributor

Re: Setting up a New SAN

Have you logged into the MSA's Web GUI and defined your host ports and/or created/presented storage to them?

 

I don;t remember offhand if the MSA supports direct connection... I think It does.  I'll have to look it up.

 

 

if you have not created an "Array"... there won;t be anything to "see" except for the controllers.

Steven Clementi
HP Master ASE, Storage, Servers, and Clustering
MCSE (NT 4.0, W2K, W2K3)
VCP (ESX2, Vi3, vSphere4, vSphere5, vSphere 6.x)
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KUSD
Frequent Visitor

Re: Setting up a New SAN

Thank you for the response. 
I have been able to get into the web gui via the copper connection, so I tried checking the port configurations.  I setup the initial LUN and associated it with the connected FC ports.  I pointed the ports to the connections on the server and identified them by their WWNs.  Still when I run the MSA discovery tool, it does not find the device.  The properties of port in the MSA also say they are not discovered.

It looks like the solution is somewhere in this vein of investigation.  Everything I have read so far indicated this MSA is capable of a direct connection so I do think it is possible.  I will continue to muck around with it and hopefully find what I am missing. 

 

 Again I appreciate the suggestions. 

KUSD
Frequent Visitor

Re: Setting up a New SAN

Looks like the problem has been found.  I got on the horn with HP and well HURR DURR, I needed to update the drivers for the HBA.  I will continue to post any issues I have with setting this up in case I get stuck again.  Hopefully this may be helpful to someone else that runs into the same issue. 

Dileep P S
Advisor

Re: Setting up a New SAN

Hi,

 

Brocade do not support direct connectiivty with MSA and need one san switch in between with available drivers.

 

New drives is expected to release in this month 

 

More details 

 

http://community.brocade.com/thread/7302?start=0&tstart=0

 

also please enable multipath in Windows 2008 also

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee619752(v=ws.10).aspx

 

Regards

Dileep P S

KUSD
Frequent Visitor

Re: Setting up a New SAN

Yeah, looks like you're confirming what I got from HP a little bit ago.  Yesterday I updated the drivers to 3.0.0 and it partially supported direct connection, but not completely so I couldn't make any further headway in that regard. 

 

I took a look through the links you posted and found that the 3.1.0.0 driver has been released.  Thanks for that.  The release notes say it should now support direct connection.  I'm going to give it a try and see if it works. 

KUSD
Frequent Visitor
Solution

Re: Setting up a New SAN

I had to muck around with it a little bit, but it looks like the 3.1.0.0 drivers did the trick.  It is now showing up the way it should and my backup software is able to see the SAN system.  Here is the link to the drivers incase anyone else gets stuck on this.

 

http://www.brocade.com/services-support/drivers-downloads/adapters/Windows.page

 

Thanks for the suggestions and help.