Connect MSA1000 to HP Compaq d530

[Alessandro Pilati]

Hi to all,
I would be happy to know if is possible to connect a MSA1000 to
an HP Compaq d530.

Once the MSA1000 was connected to a HP Compaq DS15 server, trough a
FCA2384-64BIT 2GB 133MHZ PCI (code HP DS-KGPSA-EA)
( Part number FC1020042-01F )

Now I would want to connect the MSA1000 trough this Fiber Channel adapter to the HP Compaq D530 server and I don't know if it is possible.


Hundreds of points for useful answers :-)

Thank you,
Alessandro

[Steven Clementi · Accepted solution]

Are you speaking of the D530 PC?


If so, you should be able to slip a 2214 or similar FCA into a 32bit slot and load up drivers for it. Should work just like a server, except that you will only be running 32bit instead of 64bit.

What OS is running on the D530?


Steven

[Alessandro Pilati]

The OS installed is
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 AS.

And the server is D530C / P2,8 / 40BC / 256E / 4 ITL

p/n: DG062A#ABZ

Thank you,
Alessandro

[Steven Clementi]

Ok, so it is a desktop PC (well... minitower)


Technically, RHEL4 is not supported on it, but I can not see why it would not work being as it is installed and working I assume?

Again, a FCA2214 should work in the box. Here is a link to more info on the card. http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/fca2214/index.html

Maybe tonight I will test out a 64bit FCA in a PC with only 32bit slots just to confirm, but pretty sure it should work.


Steven

[Uwe Zessin]

The FCA2384 is an Emulex adapter. Last time I checked, they were not supported in a HP/Linux enviromnet.

[Alessandro Pilati]

Thank you for the answers.
But why exactly I cannot use the FCA2384 ?
For a 32-64 bit problem?

Thank you,
Alessandro

[Uwe Zessin]

The FCA2384 is a HP-branded product, sold for use in AlphaServers. It has not been tested by HP in other servers and you won't find a HP-provided device driver package for Linux. The adapter might even have been configured with parameters for AlphaServers, but I am not sure.

The Emulex model number for this adapter is LP9802 - you can go to their web site and see if they have drivers for Linux, but if there are any problems, please understand that you are on your own. Well, you will be on your own anyway, because desktops are not qualified for Fibre Channel connectivity.

Now, please don't feel too discouraged. If this isn't daddy's mission critical system, you are free and try it for fun. Please keep us informed of your progress!

[Alessandro Pilati]

Uwe,
I installed a driver downloaded from this site of Emulex:
there is an
Emulex driver 8.0.16.17 for Linux 2.6 kernel ( RHEL 4 and SLES 9 ) of 31 August:

http://www.emulex.com/ts/docfc/linuxframe.htm
I choosed the SCSI current version, and there is the support for LP9802...

So I installed the driver, reboot and started /usr/sbin/hbanyware/hbanyware

And I can see the LUN setted in the MSA1000 ( 2 Phisical Disk divided in 7 LUNS )


I created with fdisk some partitions in the sda and sdc luns, so see this output:

#ls -l1 /dev/*|grep sd| cut -c 49-
/dev/disk-3600805f3000b6f5000000000386a003414 -> sdc14
/dev/disk-3600805f3000b6f5000000000386a003415 -> sdc15
/dev/disk-3600805f3000b6f5000000000386a00342 -> sdc2
/dev/disk-3600805f3000b6f5000000000386a00343 -> sdc3
/dev/disk-3600805f3000b6f5000000000386a00344 -> sdc4
/dev/disk-3600805f3000b6f5000000000386a00345 -> sdc5
/dev/disk-3600805f3000b6f5000000000386a00346 -> sdc6
/dev/disk-3600805f3000b6f5000000000386a00347 -> sdc7
/dev/disk-3600805f3000b6f5000000000386a00348 -> sdc8
/dev/disk-3600805f3000b6f5000000000386a00349 -> sdc9
/dev/disk-3600805f3000b6f50000000006da000321 -> sda1
/dev/disk-3600805f3000b6f50000000006da000325 -> sda5
/dev/disk-3600805f3000b6f50000000006da000326 -> sda6
/dev/sda
/dev/sda1
/dev/sda5
/dev/sda6
/dev/sdb
/dev/sdb1
/dev/sdb2
/dev/sdb5
/dev/sdb6
/dev/sdc
/dev/sdc1
/dev/sdc10
/dev/sdc11
/dev/sdc12
/dev/sdc13
/dev/sdc14
/dev/sdc15
/dev/sdc2
/dev/sdc3
/dev/sdc4
/dev/sdc5
/dev/sdc6
/dev/sdc7
/dev/sdc8
/dev/sdc9
/dev/sdd
/dev/sdd1
/dev/sdd3
/dev/sdd8
/dev/sde
/dev/sde3
/dev/sde7
/dev/sdf
/dev/sdf3
/dev/sdf7
/dev/sdg
/dev/sdg3
/dev/sdg7

Consider these points:
The rows of the output without links identify past partitions created on MSA1000 when it was attached to a Compaq DS15 server.

When I create a partition in the LUN with fdisk, when I exit and save from it, a link is created as one of the first rows above... why?
And why, when I make a reboot, the links above disappear?

Other question:
# ls -la | awk '{print $1" "$5" "$9 }'
total
drwxr-xr-x 4096 .
drwxr-xr-x 20480 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 38392 elxdiscoveryd
-rwxr--r-- 1955 get_udev_name.pl
-rwxr--r-- 105089 hbacmd
-rwxr-xr-x 137820 HBACMD_User's_Guide_v1.3.pdf
-rwxr--r-- 1274 hbanyware
drwxr-xr-x 12288 hbanyware_help
-rwxr--r-- 579469 HBAnyware.jar
drwxr-xr-x 4096 jre
-rw-r--r-- 846 rm.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1515 rm.log
drw-rw---- 4096 RMRepository
-rwxr--r-- 330486 rmserver
-rwxr-xr-x 789 ssc
-rwxr-xr-x 155158 ssc.jar
drwxr-xr-x 12288 sscutil_help
-rwxr--r-- 1353 start_elxdiscovery
-rwxr--r-- 1335 start_rmserver
-rwxr--r-- 1684 stop_hbanyware

What are the functions of this program? in particular of ssc...

In any case, all runs correctly, and the driver is up and running.


Comments and replies are appreciated !
Points to all replies.
Thank you!

Regards,
Alessandro

[Uwe Zessin]

Well, this one:
> /dev/disk-3600805f3000b6f50000000006da000321 -> sda1

looks like some kind of persistent LUN binding to me. The idea is to access the data through a name (/dev/disk-36008...) that does not change, even when you make changes to the underlying physics (e.g. insert a LUN in the address space, later).

You should be able to recognize this value on the MSA when you display the units:
CLI> show units
...
Device Identifier : 600805f3-000b6f50-00000000-6da00032
...

Now, why they disappear after reboot, my guess is this:
it sounds like you need to add a program to the system boot that recreates the links, because the physical devices could have changed (e.g. /dev/sdb moved to /dev/sdc) and new links to the then-current devices need to be made.

HBAnyware is Emulex's program collection to manage its Fibre Channel adapters in a given environment - it is also available for Windows. 'ssc' is the 'HBAnyware Security Configurator':
http://www.emulex.com/ts/docfc/utilities/hbanyware/20a20/sec_start_linsol.htm