HP-UX 11i / VxVM - DR on an EMC DMX3000 - Is PowerPath a Requirement?

[Alzhy]

I was just told our DR environment will utilize EMC DMX3000. Our existing environments use Hitachi based arrays (XP12K,etc..) and we use VxVM DMP as our path protection/load balancing. Will we need to have PowerPath installed to our OS environment? Does anyone know if there is a "mode" on the LUN presentations from the DMX so it is compatible with DMP and no longer require SecurePath?

Thanks A lot.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom Nelson,

We are using EMC with fiber connect in a production environment and do not use powerpath. HP-UX 11 and 11i v1.

Yeah I know, we're working on getting rid of the 11.00

Good Luck, hope with all this work you get time to enjoy your Harley.

SEP

[Geoff Wild]

You don't need powerpath for DR - it it for automatically handling load balancing across hba's.

For DR, you need SRDF - to replicate bcv's between frames.

That said - I don't know if you can replicate between Hitachi and EMC - that would be a question to those vendors.

Rgds...Geoff

[Alzhy]

Hello Steven, Thanks Geoff!

We will perform Cold Recoveries so no need for SRDF here Geoff. I just actually got confirmation from Veritas that Active/Active VxVM DMP is supported on HP-UX 11.11 for EMC DMX arrays -- so I think we're cool...

Do you by anychance know if the EMC DMX is the same as the older EMC Symmetrix wherein LUN allocations/re-allocations/presentations - can only be done by an EMC via a BIN File thingy? Or is that already client/customer doable?

Thanks!

[Geoff Wild]

As far as I know you have to use EMC Control Centre to do LUN allocations.

We have DMX 800/100/3000's here...

Rgds...Geoff

[sathish kannan]

Hello Nelson,

You can do lun allocation/modification either using Solution enabler or ECC. both of them are good and you need purchase them.

But for your earlier question, yes PowerPath is not an requirement but it handles I/O (load balance/path management) better and it is not a must.

SRDF is a EMC prodcut to replicate data between EMC Frames and not BCV devices. EMC Timefinder manages BCV devices.

Hope I clarify your doubts.

Regards
sathish

[GauthamNaga]

Hi Nelson,

If you have already installed VXDMP in your node, then no need to install Powerpath.

Please run the below command to confirm

vxdisk path

vxdisk list "device id" (ex:c3t4d8s2)

Device: c3t0d8s
devicetag: c3t0d8
type: sliced
..
...
..
numpaths: 2
c3t0d8s2 state=enabled
c4t1d8s2 state=enabled