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Re: Linux and DSM MPIO?

 
Paul Hutchings
Super Advisor

Linux and DSM MPIO?

Is it possible to do DSM MPIO i.e. access a volume via all nodes in a cluster?

I'm pretty sure you can only do this from Windows with the Windows DSM MPIO but I'm not 100% sure so if anyone's able to confirm/clarify that would be great.

Thanks,
Paul
8 REPLIES 8
aqualityplace
Advisor

Re: Linux and DSM MPIO?

Hi Paul

Concurrent access to volume is not a feature that the DSM MPIO provides (to my knowledge) The DSM MPIO driver provides multipathing and direct access to secotrs of data without having to go through the gateway node for a particular volume.

To allow concurrent access to a single volume for multiple hosts the formated file system on the volume must support clustering.

Paul Hutchings
Super Advisor

Re: Linux and DSM MPIO?

Sorry I perhaps explained badly.

If I have volume1 and it's network raid10 across node1 and node2 then with the Windows DSM MPIO a connection is made to both node1 and node2 at the same time for volume1.

With Linux (well, certainly vmware) you can do MPIO but the connections would all be to either node1 or node2, not both concurrently.

Can you do anything similar on Linux to what you would do with Windows DSM MPIO?
aqualityplace
Advisor

Re: Linux and DSM MPIO?

Hi Paul,

I am not sure how this would work in a 2 node cluster. But my understanding is the DSM driver keeps a map of the data so connections dont need to go through a gateway node.

With a 2 node cluster the data is identicle on both nodes for network raid10 volumes so i am not sure if it would decide to load balance between the 2.

if it does it would certainly help improve read performance, wouldnt make much diffenence to writes as the acknologment wouldn't happen untill the write had hit both nodes.

Not sure about any current or future support for a linux DSN driver.

hope this helps
Paul Hutchings
Super Advisor

Re: Linux and DSM MPIO?

P4000 isn't listed on the supported list for that?
Jitun
HPE Pro

Re: Linux and DSM MPIO?

There is no MPIO DSM for Linux and ESX as of now.
I work for HPE
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CCC-Monitor
Senior Member

Re: Linux and DSM MPIO?

We had tried to setup Multipath on our Linux servers to a P4000 cluster and had quite a few strange problems. After opening a ticket with HP, they confirmed that multipath with Linux is not supported.

 

Sad but true.

Bart_Heungens
Honored Contributor

Re: Linux and DSM MPIO?

Yes I can confirm that the DSM MPIO is only available today for Windows...

 

To obtain better/higher performance for Linux and/or ESX you should follow the best practices by implementing Load Balancing accross multiple NICs... It is not as good as DSM MPIO where you have active connections to all storage nodes, but in a typical 2 or 4 node setup the gain would be less high than with more than 6 nodes...

 

The document for VMware can be found here

http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA3-6918ENW.pdf

 

Kr,

Bart

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