Is vxdmp supported for EVA4000

[Sunil Varghese]

Hi,
I am going to install a whole bunch of new products, like EVA4000, HP-UX 11i V2, Storage foundation 4.1 Enterprise HA for Oracle from Veritas, all on Itanium hardware, following are my doubts:
1. Will VXDMP do the multipathing, or I need secure path, I have read that secure path and VXVM is not supported in EVA4000. If no multipathing works, what is best way out.
2. Any issues if I fresh install the local root disk (Disk inside Itanium servers) using VXVM and VXFS combination instead of LVM and VXFS.
3. Can i have VRAID1 and VRAID5 luns in the same diskgroup of EVA4000 which will be initialized by VXVM to make simple volumes.

I needed some concrete answers, just to sure that I am on the right track.
Thanks in Advance.

[Alessandro Pilati]

Hi Sunil,
I think that for your first question, these two past threads may help you:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=942530

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=943417

http://www.tdmidrange.de/opencms/opencms/public/Veranstaltungen/download/EVA4000-neu.pdf

Rgds,
Alex

[Sunil Varghese]

Hi Alex,

I checked your suggestion, but probably it does not answer my question.
Can PVlink work for VxVM, I believe PVLINK works for LVM and I am not using LVM at all in my config.

Autopath may no work for me either.

The only multipathing software I have is Vxdmp from Veritas, so will vxdmp work for EVA4000?

[RAC_1]

1. As far as I understand, vxdmp works with secure path/power path. But why have both?? When you are going to have vxvm, why to have secure path. It is additional $$ product.
vxmdmp offers all that secure path offers.

2. No issues. At the time install you have option of choosing LVM with vxfs or VxVM with vxfs. Go for VxVM.

3. Whay do raid levels with VxVM?? This is going to be software raid which is not as faster as hardware raid. (done on raid systems, at hardware level). If you have specific requirements, you can prepare your vxVM volumes with a particular layout. vxmake -layout option. Also, you can change the layout online if need arises.

Anil

[generic_1]

EVA does pathing strange. If you lost say a HBA, switch, or fiber, you may have problems if you dont use securepath. They claim EVA 4000 has active active controllers, but I have heard it reroutes the data to the active controller as opposed to the a true active active. For this reason I am not sure they have really gotten away from the old issues of not trying to use securepath. Perhaps they have updated things enough that this is not an issue. I would be a little reluctant on this product though, not running it. UWE do you know for sure?

[generic_1]

PVlinks in HPUX will will support the EVA4000/6000/8000. You dont need securepath, if it was a 5000/3000 you would.

[Uwe Zessin]

On the EVA4000/6000/8000 a single controller is still responsible for maintaining physical disk I/Os of a virtual disk, yes. The difference to the EVA3000/5000 is that the new models follow the industry standard for Active/Active failover, so I don't think it is that "strange". The VA7xxx storage arrays do work in a similar way (internally rerouting I/Os) together with PVlinks or AutoPath.

Write I/O is not really a problem, because a copy of the data is usually sent to the other controller's mirror cache anyway. For read I/O, the host can determine the 'performance paths'.

[generic_1]

I find it strange that it more or less mimics active active by standard, and still is not working in the true sense active active. Fully active active would be better.

[Sreedhar Nathani]

Hello Sunil,

For Supporting disk arrays via vxdmp under vxvm needs ASL(array Support Library).

Currently there is no ASL for EVA range of products on HPUX. You have to use Securepath for EVA under VxVM.

1. Will VXDMP do the multipathing, or I need secure path, I have read that secure path and VXVM is not supported in EVA4000. If no multipathing works, what is best way out.

>> You need securepath to support EVA under VxVM.

2. Any issues if I fresh install the local root disk (Disk inside Itanium servers) using VXVM and VXFS combination instead of LVM and VXFS.

>> No Issues. Incase if you don't have Securepath, with LVM you can use PVlinks

3. Can i have VRAID1 and VRAID5 luns in the same diskgroup of EVA4000 which will be initialized by VXVM to make simple volumes

>> Yes you can have VRAID1, VRAID5 luns on the same diskgroup. But to use EVA with VxVM you need securepath

Hope this helps

[Sunil Varghese]

Hi Guys,

Thanks a lot for your time, but I am not getting a clear answer. My problem is we have sold HPUX servers with Veritas Storage foundation HA for Oracle, I cannot go to customer and say use LVM with pvlinks for multipathing, since the whole purpose of selling Veritas is lost, if I have to give any improvments for Oracle its only thru VxVM and Vxfs base.
Veritas does not yet have Array Support for EVA4000, so I conclude that vxdmp will not help, nor will securepath or PVlinks.
I assume that the only way my config will work till I get Veritas working on a ASL is allowing only one path to the Host servers, all other paths I will try to block in EVA4000 level, am I correct

[Sreedhar Nathani]

Hi Sunil,

Veritas does not yet have Array Support for EVA4000, so I conclude that vxdmp will not help, nor will securepath or PVlinks.

>> yes, if you want to use vxvm,vxfs with eva4000

I assume that the only way my config will work till I get Veritas working on a ASL is allowing only one path to the Host servers, all other paths I will try to block in EVA4000 level, am I correct
>> You needs to wait for ASL support for EVA. You can either block at EVA4000 level or use can /etc/vx/vmvm.exclude to exclude alternate paths from vxvm. Note you may not have the redundancy if one of the path fails.

[Sreedhar Nathani · Accepted solution]

Hi Sunil,

Veritas Has released the ASL for EVA 4k/6k/8k.

You can download the same from the following website
http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/278428.htm

With this you can manage the multipathing/load balence with VxVM DMP, you no needs to use PVLinks/Secure Path

Thanks
Sreedhar

[Sunil Varghese]

Hi,

Sorry to reply so late, I was actually busy with the project, the best part is vxdmp worked from day one without adding any ASL, however, Shridhar your help is really valuable, since i will update the new asl. Infact my entire installation went very smooth with no hassles at all. I have the whole solution install with veritas including the root disk.
Thanks once again guys.
regards
Sunil Varghese

[Sunil Varghese]

Hi,

Veritas installation is smooth on HPUX 11iV2, if you have all the recommended patch there is no issues with vxdmp or roottability on vxvm and vxfs.

thanks
Sunil Varghese