Adding a mac data fc switch - HPUX 11i - CX300

[Charles Peterson_1]

I will be adding a mac data switch to a system that currently has an EMC CX300 directly connected to via hba cards to a system running 2 servers with MC ServiceGuard (HA environment).
I'm really not sure what problems I might run into. I've never added a FC Switch to a system.

The end result will be 2x HPUX 11i servers connected via FC switch to a CX300 and a CX500 (new).

The system is not yet in a live environment, but the CX300 contains oracle database and image files.

Any suggestions on where to start?

[B. Hulst]

Hi,

Make sure you have a backup of the oracle db, as stored on the EMC.

Check all the necessary FC cables: connectors and length. ;-)

Only one Mac Data? Not two switches ?
You have a MC/SG HA cluster. One MacData
is a single point of failure.

Regards,
Bob

[Torsten.]

Be aware of the change in HW pathes. All your disk devices (LUNs) will get new HW pathes, so you need to re-configure LVM and Serviceguard.

[Stuart Abramson]

The addition of the switch will change all of your /dev/dsk/cXtYdZ files and will require that you vgexport / vgimport all Volume Groups on both sides of the cluster.

You have to save all of your VG Names, Minor Numbers and map files ahead of time. I recommend scripting all of this stuff ahead of time and saving the key info in the root disk in a special "save" directory (/root/save) or someplace.

You are also now changing from Direct Connect which uses FC-AL fibre channel protocol to FC-SW protocol. You have to be sure that your fibre cards and drivers will support this. The HBA card should auto-detect and adjust. You may have to reboot the server.

From the HP-UX point of view, working with EMC disks in a SAN is roughly the same as working direct, but now you have to use ECC to control the SAN.

The recommended architecture for a Clariion in a switched setting is attached in a Word Document.

Also, now that you are changin to a SAN, you have to do "LUN Masking" - i.e. - your Storage Team has to do LUN Masking.

Have you bought the switch yet (and as stated above, you should have bought two switches)? Becuase you really need a 10-PAGE PLAN to address the changes! I mean it.

[Stuart Abramson]

I forgot the word document.