ISL connection between HP 8/20q and MSA1000 2/8 EL FC switch not working

[andre.mostert]

Hi there guys, Need a bit of a soundboard for my plan

System 1 setup

MSA1000 with 1 tray

2x controllers active/pasive

2x embedded FC 2/8 switches

Connected to 2 ESX hosts and running OK.

System 2

MSA2000 connected to 2 HP SAN 8/20q switches, there are no ISL links between to two switches.

There are also 2 ESX hosts connected to this system.

Domain IDs on the 8/20q is 1 and 2

Domain IDs on the MSA FC swtiches is 2 and 1

The firmware is not the lastest and I think the MSA switch firmware is realease firmware 3.2.1.

Job:

I want to setup ISL link from one MSA1000 switch to the one 8/20q switch. The switches I connected does not have the same domain ID's but for some reason I cannot see the disks from the MSA1000 on the 8/20q switches.

I want to connect the MSA1000 to the 8/20q so that I can see the disks on the new MSA2000 environment to move the data from the MSA1000 to the MSA2000.

Hope this makes sense. Any help would be appreciated.

Andre Mostert

[andre.mostert]

Think I might have found the problem, the guys that setup the system added a ISL link between the two 8/20q switches without telling me. So the Domain ID's that I have on the old embedded MSA switches will not work.

Going to the datacenter to sort out tomorrow

[andre.mostert]

OK guys I need a bit of help

Went to site yesterday and sorted out the cables and the domain ID's but still no luck. As soon as I link up the MSA2/8 embedded swtich with a 8/20q swtich it does not form a ISL link. The link light just keeps on pulsing. In the Gui it does not show that its segmented.

Possible problems

- switches are incompatible

- both switches require a firmware upgrade

If I connect the two 8/20q switches the ISL link comes up but not between the msa 2/8 and a 8/20q swich.

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Andre

[Stephen Kebbell]

Hi,

I don't know if you can connect Qlogic and Brocade switches to form a fabric.
According to the HP SAN Design Guide:
HP does not support MSA1000 storage systems (with or without the MSA SAN Switch 2/8) or
MSA1500 storage systems in interoperable, heterogeneous switch fabric configurations.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?contentType=SupportManual&locale=en_US&docIndexId=179911&taskId=101&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=406734

The SAN Design Guide also describes the TR feature of "H-Series" Switches (of which the 8/20q is one). It won't form a fabric, but seems to use NPIV and routing.
See page 88. Not sure if this will work for you, though.
There are interoperability guides on how to merge any two of Brocade, Cisco and McData fabrics, but nothing on the Qlogic.

Regards,
Stephen

[andre.mostert]

Thank you for the feedback,

I was reading through the SAN design guide yesterday and found what you found. But great for the confirmation.

Our only options now is to pull the 2 MSA1000 switches and install the single fibre cards into the MSA. Then to take that fibre leads to the new 8/20q switches. That way we will be able to see the storage on the new ESX environment and import the vmx files from the MSA storage.

We can also invest in more switches but as this is a interm solution we just need to find an extra fibre card.

Hope this makes sense.

Andre

[Uwe Zessin · Accepted solution]

Right, Stephen,

TR requires NPIV, but the MSA 2/8 switch can't do NPIV.

gunslinger_, this is indeed the solution/workaround:

replace the MSA switches with simple Fibre Channel I/O modules.

[andre.mostert]

Close out overview

The best way to connect a MSA1000 with embedded 2/8 switches to a 8/20q fibre switch is to connect the MSA with direct fibre card modules and remove the MSA intergrated swtiches.

Thanks you for the help guys its much appreciated.