ESL 712 & Zoning

[Nicole Angelis]

Hi all,

We just received our New ESL 712e Library. This library is going to be used to replace our existing MSL6060s. The library is fibre channel only, including the drives. It has 4 clusters with 4 drives each. We have configured the library and it is detected by CV TL. I am very familiar how to MSL libraries should be zoned, but I am a bit confused about the ESL library. We are planning to use secure manager and we will also partition the library. My questions are:

(1) If we are using secure manager to control access to the library, how should it be zoned? Should the entire library be zoned to the hosts that need to have access to it and then use secure manager to control which library resources that host has access to?

(2) Do you create the library partitions first, and then only zone the fibre channel drives which make up that partition?

Attached is a simple layout of how the interface controllers are connected to the SAN.

Is there any updated documentation for the ESL libraries? Everything I found on HP's site only references the older systems which used parallel scsi.

Any feed back is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

-Nicole

[The Spartan]

1.The design guide should help you plan better -

Link -
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00775232/c00775232.pdf

2. Either.

3. Is there any updated documentation for the ESL libraries?
Regarding?

[rich pattison]

Be careful........
Secure Manager will load balance 2x drives to each fibrechannel port on the interface the Controllers (assuming "default" auto- mode is set on the Interace Manager). By incorrectly zoning you could inadvertantly make drives inacessible to hosts.

Don't forget - Secure Manager is used for Host presentation and is configured at the device (library) level. Zoning is a mechanism primarily used to separate Host operating systems, and is implemented at the "Fabric" (switch) level. Different tools to acheive different things.

There's a guide that explains Interface Manager drive mapping:-

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00093356/c00093356.pdf

Other Docs for the ESLe's here:-

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?contentType=SupportManual〈=en&cc=us&docIndexId=179111&taskId=115&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=392031

But not a lot on zoning!

[Natesan_1]

Hi Nicole,

Zoning and Secure manager are two different things.
You have to Zone to avoid interface in Fabric memebers accessing tape ports.Secure manager to enable access to single or multiple drives or robot etc.

I have few question to clarify and my inputs.

1.Is it SIPP enabled ROBOT?.
##I have the updated ESL installation guide.
send ur email id. I will send it to u.

2.What is the backup software you would use?
## if it is veritas netbackup. it is must to partition library, otherwise veritas will not understand the drives coming thro different Fabric( if at all u use more than one interface controller connecting different fabric)You would need secure manager license to partition the library.


I have recently installed ESL 286e in one of the customer site.It is stright forward installation, except some of the issue with CVTL verion and Library F/w & ipaddress 10.x.x.x segment in management.

you can directly write mail (natesan_v@emitac.ae or v_natesan@yahoo.com)to me with ur clarifcation, I shall share information which I have.

[Nicole Angelis]

Thanks for the replies and document links. Things are starting to make sense but I am still a bit confused about when you would use Secure Manager. I was under the impression that you required both, zoning to isolate tape library hardware from certain hosts, and then you still needed Secure Manager to grant access to hosts after zoning was done. Do I need to use one or the other? How does it work since all of our FC switches use zoning, that means that anything not in a zone cannot be seen.

Thanks for your patience.

-Nicole

[The Spartan]

Nicole,

You are right, both zoning and secure manager are required

*You need zoning to ensure that the host does see the tape device. Now zoning is purely to ensure the root map or path for the secure manager to talk with the tape device.
*The Command View TL Secure Manager feature enables users to grant Fibre Channel host bus adapters
access to devices in a tape library. Secure Manager automatically generates the Fibre Channel port LUN
to target device mappings that will be presented to a specific host bus adapter (or host). Without Secure
Manager, this process is manual, technical, and tedious if there are multiple interface controllers.(page 54 of the document i posted)

*"How does it work since all of our FC switches use zoning, that means that anything not in a zone cannot be seen."
Well you to ensure zoning such that the hosts are able to see the tape unit; thus they are able to see their respective partition as well. Post that you may proceed with the usage of secure manager for the aforesaid reason.

Hope this helps.

Regards.