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тАО10-30-2006 06:14 AM
тАО10-30-2006 06:14 AM
Solved! Go to Solution.
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тАО10-30-2006 06:21 AM
тАО10-30-2006 06:21 AM
SolutionYou can manually load balance with pvlinks - but then you are just guessing as to which path you want for the primary.
We use Powerpath on production systems - but not on QA/Dev.
Rgds...Geoff
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тАО10-30-2006 06:30 AM
тАО10-30-2006 06:30 AM
Re: HP-UX EMC PowerPath: power device or pvlinks?
goes down. We did not have alternate pvlinks set up and found out the HARD way about that.
Don't assume that Powerpath will work, always set up an alternate link, that way if Powerpath fails, your a__ is covered.
Chris
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тАО10-30-2006 06:42 AM
тАО10-30-2006 06:42 AM
Re: HP-UX EMC PowerPath: power device or pvlinks?
We also are planning to use powerpath for prod., but not for our single attached dev servers.
EMC powerpath install docs show pvlinks and make reference to power devices not support on HP-UX. We have EMC intern workin here with us, and I questioned the docs....
I also wondered if ONLY using pvlinks then why did we buy powerpath, and where is our 'auto' balance loading?
So I will point to power device for main device and extend the VG to all paths for pvlinks....
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тАО10-30-2006 07:48 AM
тАО10-30-2006 07:48 AM
Re: HP-UX EMC PowerPath: power device or pvlinks?
To find out what devices are configured under PowerPath, issue a 'powermt display dev=all' command. Every volume in the array that has multiple paths will show those multiple paths in the powermt display listing.
PowerPath inserts itself in the driver stack, so using the /dev/dsk/cxtxdx device is fine, it will still load balance and failover appropriately. EMC used to require you to use the EMCPower devices, but they are moving away from that, so don't do it.
Be sure that you issue a 'powermt config' command after adding new devices to your system (after ioscan and insf). Then run powermt display to verify, and you are good to go. It's not a bad idea to ALSO use pvlinks, but it is certainly not required.
You can also use PowerPath to control load balancing and failover of other storage arrays, not just EMC. It works nicely with EVA and Hitachi-based arrays in my experience, and is a good solution for when you are migrating data between platforms.
The only time I have seen a properly configured PowerPath install fail to failover between paths is when an HBA took out a PCI bus, and both HBA's were on that bus...not exactly PowerPath's fault. However, I have seen pvlinks fail plenty of times. So best bet, just use both and you're covered.
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тАО10-30-2006 04:00 PM
тАО10-30-2006 04:00 PM
Re: HP-UX EMC PowerPath: power device or pvlinks?
PowerPath provide load balanvce. PV links will not load balance.
PowerPath loads its drivers and intercepts I/O. If you have PowerPath I would not recommend to use PV links. Addidng PV link is an overhead and some time it may create problems.
Operation systems apart from HP like SOLARIS, AIX etc uses Pseudo device names and HP does not.
You can change/display PowerPath options like failover, policy etc usning "powermt" commands.
Hope it helps.
Regards
Sathish
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тАО10-31-2006 12:10 AM
тАО10-31-2006 12:10 AM
Re: HP-UX EMC PowerPath: power device or pvlinks?
But I don't know what you mean by PVlinks. I'd assume you mean that you see this in vgdisplay -v
PV Name /dev/dsk/c3t5d6
PV Name /dev/dsk/c6t5d6 Alternate Link
Right?
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тАО10-31-2006 12:25 AM
тАО10-31-2006 12:25 AM
Re: HP-UX EMC PowerPath: power device or pvlinks?
PowerPath works great on HPUX and we use it on our Windows environment too. It has really helped improve I/O and performance.
Regards,
Rita
..in shorter terms, they are both good products to use..
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тАО10-31-2006 05:03 AM
тАО10-31-2006 05:03 AM
Re: HP-UX EMC PowerPath: power device or pvlinks?
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тАО10-31-2006 02:57 PM
тАО10-31-2006 02:57 PM
Re: HP-UX EMC PowerPath: power device or pvlinks?
Again I want to reitrate my statement that if you use EMC PowerPath do not use PV links. especially with CLARiiON being an active-passive array, adding PV link will cause havoc when the LUNS are tresppased.
So stick with PP and let it manage. As a procedure add the the default LUN owner as the device.
All the best.
Regard
sathihs