What's the difference between the HP MPIO DSM modules?

[bolsen21]

What is the difference between these MPIO drivers?

HP MPIO DSM (Device Specific Module) Manager for Full Featured DSMs

HP MPIO Full Featured DSM for EVA4x00/6x00/8x00 families of Disk Arrays

When should one module be used instead of the other?

[Víctor Cespón]

HP MPIO Full Featured -- This is the MPIO driver

HP MPIO DSM Manager -- This a managing application to configure how the driver handles the LUNs and paths.

[bolsen21]

To be clear, I should always use the HP MPIO Full Featured DSM?

If so, what is the purpose of the DSM manager? Why wouldn't you always use the Full Featured DSM install?

[Marcus Schack]

The Full Featured DSM module is what you must install to get MPIO functionality. The DSM Manager is optional but will allow you to "manage" your MPIO. In other words you can fail paths back and forth, set load balancing, etc. Best thing to do is to load DSM Manager and see what things it will allow you to do.

So.... Full Featured DSM gives you MPIO functionality and Manager module is optional.

[Marcus Schack]

Here is a link to the documentation area.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?contentType=SupportManual〈=en&cc=us&docIndexId=64179&taskId=101&prodTypeId=18964&prodSeriesId=421492

[Uwe Zessin]

The MPIO DSM understands the storage array functions (or a group of arrays like the EVA[468][014]00) and acts as a low-level helper for Microsoft's MPIO framework (there are other DSMs for, e.g. MSA, SVSP or XP storage available).

The manager installation provides the MMC plugin and can deal with different DSMs.

[bolsen21]

OK, I was missing the point that the manager was independent from the full install. I was thinking the manager was included in the full install.

Thanks for clearing this up for me.

[Uwe Zessin]

"full featured" DSMs can be managed with the MMC plugin or a command-line interface (HPDSM).

For older arrays with active/passive LUN presentation, there is also a "basic MPIO" which does not offer a management interface, no multipath policies, - not even a CLI.