HP UX Multipathing

[Robert Brothers]

Does HP UX 11 v2 have multipathing capabilities?

[Murat SULUHAN]

Hi Rob

in 11.23
For SANs you have to install SecurePath
For LANs you have to install AutoPath


in 11.31
SAN Multipath option comes with OS

Best Regards
Murat

[Robert Brothers]

Thank you is there a location I can download secure path? Just installed a san (eva) and I see the drive in hp - ux but from what you are telling me I need secure path...

[Dave Johnson_1]

All versions of HP-UX can multipath with out any added software.

You need added software if you need to prevent server A from seeing LUNs for server B when you have a switch installed between the servers and the disk array.

You will also need added software if you want dynamic load balancing between the HBAs.

[Sajjad Sahir]

Dear Rob
u can install it from secure path cd
secure path installation is using for multipathing and load balancing etc...

thanks and regards

sajjad

[Murat SULUHAN]

Hi Rob

SecurePath is not free of charge product. You have to buy it from HP

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/sanworks/secure-path/hp-ux.html

Best Regards
Murat

[Sajjad Sahir]

Dear Rob
u can't download it from site with free of cost u have to purchase it from hp, they arrange u cd

thanks and regards

sajjad

[Torsten.]

Hi Rob,

"Does HP UX 11 v2 have multipathing capabilities?"

Yes.

Each hp-ux version I know (even the 10.xx versions almost 6 or more years out of support now) does support multipathing with pvlinks.

If one path fails, LVM (or even VxVM) will switch to another path. This works with active/active arrays.

HP-UX does not have native multipath support for active/passive arrays.

For this reason you have secure path or other 3rd party software.

An evolution of SP is autopath, bringing some load balancing algo's to multipathing add-on's, basically.

All of this is now native in 11.31.

[TTr]

> All versions of HP-UX can multipath with out any added software.

This is known as PV-links and it is a feature of the LVM software that is (free) part of HP-UX. Is has been around for many years and it is proven stable and efficient.

It provides path failover for disks with dual paths and if you assign half of the disks to one HBA and the other half to the other HBA you have a pretty good load balancing setup. In that sense it is not a true multipathing SW but it gets very close.

You should check for compatibility between PV-links and your disk array vendor but even it if is not mentioned, any disk array that can provide a primary and secondary path to a LUN will work fine with PV-links.

[Torsten.]

It would help if you tell us about your array ...

[Robert Brothers]

Thanks for the answers. Its for an EVA5000. THis is in a test/dev environment so I don't think I'll purchase secure path but utilize the built in multipathing..

[Torsten.]

The EVA5k could be active/active or active/passive depending on the firmware.

What version is installed?

[Tim Nelson]

Sounds like a good plan Rob,

As Torsten accurately identified.

All versions of HPUX have PV-Links. ( call it path failover )

For dynamic multipath balancing on HPUX versions prior to 11.31 purchase HP Secure Path ( think twice before puchasing as this product will be obsolete, see below).

HPUX 11.31's new storage stack includes dynamic multipath balancing ( obsoleting Secure Path )

Best of luck.

[Robert Brothers]

3.023 I believe is the firmware level..

[Torsten.]

3.023 is an obsolete active/passive FW, right?

If this is a test system, you should upgrade to a/a soon.

[John McWilliams_1]

Hi Rob

What type of SAN are you using? I had an EMC CLARiiON connected and it required powerpath for mulitpath, but on another server an EMC DMX1000 did not. It used PVlinks. There is no load balancing with this configuration, however you can specify the pvlink that the data will go down, so I set the primary path for half the disks to one link and the other disks to the other link.

Cheers John

[Sajjad Sahir]

Dear Rob

once u got answers please assign points


thanks and regards

sajjad

[Christian Reuss]

BTW: For LAN load balancing the product is called APA (auto port aggregation).

Bye
CR