P4500 DSM with 554FLR Accelerated iSCSI

[AuZZZie]

I'm using 554FLR 10Gb Cards for a Converged fabric Hyper-V 2012 setup with P4500 storage backend. 

I'm using DCB with Accelerate iSCSI. I'm unclear on the MPIO side of things.

1. Should I be using the Emulex OneCommand Manager to present/connect the iSCSI volumes or should I be using the iSCSI iniator select the HBA's as the source adapters? Both work for me I'm just unclear on the best practise and the supported MPIO route. 

2. What is the correct MPIO setup in this scenario? Should the HP DSM be installed if using HBA/Accelerated iSCSI? I can get it working so I can disable either path and stay connected, but it doesn't appear the DSM is actually making the connections. If I check the StoreVirtual CMC I only see initiated connections to 1 of the 3 StoreVirual nodes. Normally when you connect to the Cluster VIP you would see initiated connections to all the nodes. I only see 1 redirected connection to a single node. 

HP's documentation on this is severly lacking. Their LeftHand products feel neglected. 

[AuZZZie]

So I've found my answer. It looks like as usual we were given half the story. You cannot use the HP DSM with Accelerated iSCSI. Great.

So now, the 554FLR connected to a 5920. Does anyone know if I can get 4 NIC's our of those card? I've tried changing the personality to NIC only through OneCommand but after a reboot it never changes. It just goes back to iSCSI persoanlity (2 Host NIC's + 2 iSCSI HBA's).

[oikjn]

sounds like you need to go to support for those cards or maybe there is a forum for them. In general, I think the opinion is that unless you are required to boot bare metal from the SAN, its better to use NICs over HBA's. When you use HBA's, you are subject to whatever features your HBA manufacture provides... if they support an DSM/MPIO solution then you are good to go, but most don't. Given most server NICs are perfectly capable of handling iSCSI, there is little reason to use a HBA... this is doubly true in the case of this HP solution when the HP DSM is so powerful.

I disagree about the lacking documentation... most of their stuff is very clearly laid out with good step by step directions anyone should be able to follow. "Severely lacking" is a bit harsh when you are trying to find documentation on a setup that is not part of their suggested best practices... that said, I"ve said many times that if some new features such as thin space reclamation or SMI-S aren't added soon or clearly put on a published roadmap, that these products will be dead in the water in a few years.

[AuZZZie]

"Not supported"? This is a solution signed off on by HP and Ingram Micro. HP has been doing nothing but recommending solutions that don't work as of late. They don't know their own products.

I feel like their R&D department. I buy the stuff, waste all my time. Spends hours with their tech support to get through to someone with a clue, only to find out I was sold a bunk solution.

For instance, their Comware switches and Procruve switches don't have a compatible 10GbE DAC cable. One is compatible with one switch, one with the other.

I've opened a case with HP. So far just the typical 2hrs repeating what I've already done with their Tier 1.

[oikjn]

if its a solution that was signed off by HP and Ingram, I would find documentation that says its supported and get support from whomever backed that document. I don't trust any large company to have synergy between their products, but if this was a package that you bought together from someone selling you a solution I would be all over them link white on rice demanding they sort it out. I'm not familiar at all with your HBAs so it could be that there is a solution and the fact that it sounds like its working but keeps resetting back to default on a reboot makes me think there is probably an easy solution.

Unfortunately, this forum is like HP support... pretty dead... so I would be amazed if someone here actually had your exact setup.

[oikjn]

one more thing... maybe http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02533991/c02533991.pdf helps? that we brought up as a solution to another blade question that seems similar.