VMs do not see virtual disks w/ Integrity VM 3.5

[delewis]

Hi,

I'm using Integrity VM 3.5 on HP-UX 11.23. The hardware is an rx2600. LUNs presented from an IBM DS4400 to the rx2600 are visible. I can further create LV virtual disks and present them to VMs with no problem; however, I am unable to present virtual disks directly from the DS4400 to any Integrity VMs. Here's a sample configuration I have for a VM:

[Storage Interface Details]
Guest Physical
Device Adaptor Bus Dev Ftn Tgt Lun Storage Device
======= ========== === === === === === ========= =========================
disk scsi 0 1 0 0 0 lv /dev/vg01/rlvtestvm00
disk scsi 0 1 0 1 0 disk /dev/rdsk/c6t0d7
dvd scsi 0 2 0 0 0 file /var/tmp/hpux_11.31_eoe_dvd2.iso

The rlvtestvm00 is visible, but testvm00 is unable to see /dev/rdsk/c6t0d7 via ioscan:

testvm00/root # ioscan -fnC disk
Class I H/W Path Driver S/W State H/W Type Description
=====================================================================
disk 0 0/0/1/0.0.0 sdisk CLAIMED DEVICE HP Virtual LvDisk
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s1 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s1
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s2 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s3 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s3
disk 1 0/0/2/0.0.0 sdisk CLAIMED DEVICE HP Virtual FileDVD
/dev/dsk/c1t0d0 /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0

Any ideas why I am unable to use virtual disks?

Thanks in advance,
Derek

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

The disk disk scsi 0 1 0 0 0 lv /dev/vg01/rlvtestvm00

Is it on a shared disk array or is it local to one of the VM machines.

SEP

[delewis]

It's on the same IBM DS4400 attached to the rx2600.

[Jozef_Novak]

Hello,

which HPUX release are you using ? HPVM 3.5 is only supported on 11.23 December 2007 release or later.

What is the type of your HBAs ? Which driver are they managed by ?

Jozef

[delewis]

What's the best way to determine which specific release of 11.23 I'm running?

I'm using the LPFC driver from Emulex for the LP9002L installed in the system.

[Jozef_Novak]

Determine the OS release by running:

# /usr/sbin/swlist -l bundle HPUXBaseAux

the release can be determined from the revision string. For example, if swlist returns:

HPUXBaseAux B.11.23.0706 HP-UX Base OS Auxiliary

then your OS release is HPUX 11.23 July 2006

Jozef

[delewis]

"/usr/sbin/swlist -l bundle HPUXBaseAux" returns:

HPUXBaseAux B.11.23.0712 HP-UX Base OS Auxiliary

Looks like I'm running 11.23 12/2007.

[Jozef_Novak]

Okay, then VM 3.5 requirements are met. What is the multipathing software that you use for the IBM storage box ? (if any).

[delewis]

None at the moment. This is just an rx2600 with a single path to a DS4400, so no multipathing at the moment.

I just find it very odd that the host can see the LUNs without a problem, but any VMs cannot. Is there anything that needs to be done with hpvmdevmgmt(1M) to enable those LUNs for VM usage?

[Jozef_Novak]

Well, hpvmdevmgmet is used to manage the VM device database. You should not be required to make changes in the database if all conditions are met. I suppose that the cause of this problem lies somewhere in the combination of the DS storage and HPUX. Check whether all conditions for using the DS4400 with HPUX are met, as IBM requires.
Anyway, the only supported multipathing software for whole disks in VM 3.5 is HP SecurePath and I don't think you'll be able to use this with the DS box. So if you are planning to use this setup for production environment, you shall be using LVM logical volumes as backing stores by all means anyway.

Jozef