How do I hook and configure an STK L80 (FS-SW) to an HP 9000-Connectrix-Symmetrix configuration?

[Stuart Abramson_2]

We use ESN Manager to zone and add Volume Access to our HP 9000 UNIX Servers, Connectrix ED1032 switch, and EMC Symmetrix 8430.

We are looking at an STK L80 Tape Silo (?).

The STK salesman, who is actually a 3rd party VAR, tells us that the L80 runs switched fabric and can be hooked up directly to the Connectrix and zoned like we zone our EMC today.

I don't recall seeing any HP-UX server to EMC Connectrix to STK L80 options in ESN Mgr!

How does one connect this up and use it?

My previous experience with STK tape libraries is that they were FC-AL and ran on completely seperate HP-UX HBAs to completely seperate brocade switches to the STK library. No mixing.

Is the STK L80 really FC-SW? Do I need to configure it on a seperate HBA, or can it run on the same HBA as the EMC disk?

Can I use EMC ESN Mgr to zone the Connectrix to create a connection between the HP HBA and the STK L80?

Stuart

[Michael Tully · Accepted solution]

Hi Stuart,

When you have stacks of systems (mainly dev) which share the same HBA for both disk and tape like I do ... ha ha, no worries they can quite easily share. I am not familiar with that model tape library, so I am going to assume it has a FC/SCSI converter bridge that you run the fibre from it to brocade switch. You zone it the same way as you do anything else by matching the WWN of the bridge itself, to your server to create the zone. You create an additional zone that does not include the EMC disk, but they share the same fibre cable. Quite easy actually. You then add it to your zone set(s) for your brocade switch, refresh the zoning, and after running an ioscan on the server, the tape library and drives should appear normally as long as you have the drivers etc in the kernel. If you need anything further,let us know!
Regards
Michael

[Wieslaw Markowiak]

Michael,
Are you really sure you can share one hba for both disk and tape access?
I was taught it is not recommended beacause of performance and even data corruption issues.
Rgds - Wieslaw

[Stuart Abramson_2]

The last place I worked we were told (by EMC) NOT to mix tape and disk on the same HBA. EMC wanted disk traffic only on the disk HBAs.

Also, the STK L700E, that we had there, was FC-AL, and required a seperate switch behind the Connectrix to convert FC-SW to FC-AL.

But the SUN people (it was SUN servers, not HP) didn't care. They could put the tape and disk on the same HBA.

[Michael Tully]

Absolutely sure!

I have at least a dozen servers (all dev) that do this. I don't want to spend money on extra HBA cards for development. Of course there will be a performance degradation if you have a highly intense I/O based application and backups running at the same time.

The production ones are on different HBA's.

[Stuart Abramson_2]

EMC's official position on this is that they recommend that tape and disk traffic are seperated on different HBAs. They will not "support" a configuration where the same HBA connects to disk and tape. If you report a technical problem, they will ask that you seperate them and them attempt to reproduce the problem.