Adding SAN Disks to Linux 6.1

[Darren Etheridge_2]

I'm new to the Linux 6.1 world and I have a server loaded up with Linux Enterprise 6.1.  I have 2  HP 312A HBA Cards   I have the SAN (XP20000) and Brocades zoned where the LInux server sees all the disks, on multiple paths (4).  I installed the multipathd service and rebooted.  I now see all the disks (5) on the Linux box, but my question is what is the best way to add these multiple disks as one lun in Linux. 

I was spoiled by HPUX's SAM and don't know how to do this thru the command line.   I see I can do it thru the GUI but it only allow me to create one using the RAID and I want the XP 20K to handle the RAID config.

ANy tips would be greatly appreciated!

Darren

[Ivan Lyanguzov]

Darren,

You can find necessary manuals on the following links. Despite they are some out of date, they still apply to newer versions of RHEL with HP DM-Multupath Enablement Kit.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&contentType=SupportManual&prodTypeId=18964&prodSeriesId=3559651

Ivan.

[Matti_Kurkela]

RedHat and other enterprise Linux distributors have worked quite a bit to have the settings for most SAN array vendors included in the built-in default settings of DM-Multipath. Most of the settings specified in the Multipath Enablement Kit are now unnecessary: you can read an annotated copy of built-in defaults at /usr/share/doc/device-mapper-multipath-<version>/ to confirm.

(the pathname may be slightly different: I never recall if it's "dm-multipath" or the long form)

The dm-multipath subsystem received some fairly significant changes in the transition from RHEL 5.x to 6.x: any documentation written for 5.x or older should be taken with a grain of salt.

RedHat also has a good document on DM-multipath, specifically for RHEL 6.x:

http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/DM_Multipath/index.html

You should read that first, then your SAN manufacturer's compatibility lists to see if there are any special settings you'll need. For HP arrays, SPOCK (Single Point of Connectivity Knowledge) is the right place to find this information:

http://h20272.www2.hp.com/