You first have to log on to Navisphere. I assume the CX is up and running ? So browse to http:// , log on and click open the CX300 view. Right click on a Raid Group and create LUN.
Then create a Storage Group named after the server you want to add storage to (for example).
Right click on the SG and add the newly created LUN(s).
If the server is already registeren in Navisphere, add this server to and voila: server and LUN together makes that the server now has access to the LUN.
If the server isn't registered yet, install the Navisphere Host Agent on the server and it should become visible on the CX. You can also register the server manually, but you'd have to know which wwns belong to this server, then select all wwns (for every zone/path there's an entry) and register them.
If you don't see any server or wwn, you need to check the zoning in the SAN: log on to a switch ni each fabric and create a zone from each HBA to each Storage Processor. You'll end up having 4 paths:
- HBA1 - SPA port x
- HBA1 - SPB port y
- HBA2 - SPA port y
- HBA2 - SPB port x
On the server you should install Powerpath. Don't do anything to the new disk without loadbalancing software, since Windows can corrupt data on the LUN, since it doesn't know the 4 newly added disks are in fact one and the same. The load balancing software presents these 4 "LUNs" as a single one to the OS.
When the first server has the new disk formatted, create a share on this server and have the other servers connect to it over the LAN.
When you want to use the SAN, you must have cluster software running on each server, but you won't have concurrent access to the new disk ! If more than 1 server could write to the new disk, data corruption will occur as each server doesn't know what the other(s) is (are) doing to it. If you need concurrent access: share it "NAS style" (file level / CIFS) through a NAS or by using 1 server as a file server.
Welcome to the forums. Flare 7 is quite old. Did you buy this CX300 2nd hand perhaps ? PowerPath 3 is quite old now as well. We’re well in the 5.x nowadays.
But to answer your question: a CX300 is a block addressable storage array. You’ll create LUNs on it and attach these to hosts. This host will see the new LUN as a newly attached disk and you can format it as it were a local disk. To share this with other servers, you can then do 2 things:
- Shared access: create a share on this new drive on this host and have other hosts connect to this share
- Clustered access: mask this LUN to (an)other host(s) and make sure the cluster software is working as it should. You shouldn’t attach a LUN to 2 hosts unless it’s a cluster
So, I need to connect the device to a host server and from there share it as it is needed. What would I need to run on the host? Will the powerpath software be all I need to make it a host and be able to share it?
Also, the connection to the host needs to be through the fibre ports or can the LAN port on the SPs be used for connectivity?
To upgrade the FLARE and the powerpath, is there a difference between buying a full license as supposed to an upgrade? Would we need to buy full license as it is a second hand? Also would it be recommended/needed? At least for now we just want to use it as standard drive for storage.
Again, thank you very much for your time and patience.
The CX300 is accessible and configured, as far as I can tell. The issue is connecting the host. We are trying to use an unmanaged connection to a Debian server. We configured the server as a host on the CX300 and add it to storage group and assigned LUNs to it.
On the server we don't show any disks.
Got a windows 2000 server going as well, installed powerpath on this server but it is not finding the CX and no disk drives on it.
Does it only work if connected to the fibre ports on the SPs? or can one make the connection to the LAN port?
unless this is cx300i that has iSCSI ports, yes ..you will need to have FC connectivity. Pop an HBA into your server and connect it directly to one of the ports on SP. The LAN port you are talking about is for management only, not fo actual storage connectivity.
Do you use FC switches or were you indeed planning on LAN connectivity ? A true CX300 (so not the CX300i) only has FC connectivity.
To be able to use FC connectivity, you can either direct connect from HBA to SPA/B or use a SAN, so you can connect more than just 2 hosts. If you use a SAN you need to decide whether or not you use zoning or accept the default which is to grant every HBA access to all other ports visible on the Fabric. In most cases you'd use zoning. A zone is a sort of "tunnel" with 2 members: the wwpn of the HBA and the wwpn of a Storage Processor port. For maximum High Availability make sure each HBA is zones to each Storage Processor:
- HBA 1 - SPA 0
- HBA 1 - SPB 1
- HBA 2 - SPA 1
- HBA 2 - SPB 0
Don't forget to insert the 4 new zones to the active zoneset.
Don't forget to activate the zoneset.
If you now look at the connectivity status in Navisphere, you should be able to see 4 new entries which represent the newly added host. Select all 4 and register these as hostx. Addressing Hostx now means that all 4 paths will be involved.
So we will be getting an hba for the server to direct connect to the CX300.
Read on the CX300 that it supports FC-AL and FC-SW, I am guessing that as long as the HBA supports FC-AL we will be able to connect it directly to the server.
Reading on the DELL forums it seems they suggest the QLE2562 (Qlogic QLE2562 (dual ported 8Gbit/s PCIe HBA)) or QLE2462 (4Gbit/s dual ported).
We are looking to something smaller, like Qlogic QLA2322 2GB pci-x dual port.
After some time we have finially finished the configuration and we are currently using the CX-300. It is directly connected to a PE2950 (qla2342 HBA) running CentOS.
Once you guys cleared up our confusion the rest of the configuration wasn't complicated. We also had the hardest time trying to get it working on Debian but once we tried it on CentOS with the newest driver for Red Hat on QLogic, everything went smooth.
RRR
4 Operator
•
5.7K Posts
0
June 7th, 2011 00:00
You first have to log on to Navisphere. I assume the CX is up and running ? So browse to http:// , log on and click open the CX300 view. Right click on a Raid Group and create LUN.
Then create a Storage Group named after the server you want to add storage to (for example).
Right click on the SG and add the newly created LUN(s).
If the server is already registeren in Navisphere, add this server to and voila: server and LUN together makes that the server now has access to the LUN.
If the server isn't registered yet, install the Navisphere Host Agent on the server and it should become visible on the CX. You can also register the server manually, but you'd have to know which wwns belong to this server, then select all wwns (for every zone/path there's an entry) and register them.
If you don't see any server or wwn, you need to check the zoning in the SAN: log on to a switch ni each fabric and create a zone from each HBA to each Storage Processor. You'll end up having 4 paths:
- HBA1 - SPA port x
- HBA1 - SPB port y
- HBA2 - SPA port y
- HBA2 - SPB port x
On the server you should install Powerpath. Don't do anything to the new disk without loadbalancing software, since Windows can corrupt data on the LUN, since it doesn't know the 4 newly added disks are in fact one and the same. The load balancing software presents these 4 "LUNs" as a single one to the OS.
When the first server has the new disk formatted, create a share on this server and have the other servers connect to it over the LAN.
When you want to use the SAN, you must have cluster software running on each server, but you won't have concurrent access to the new disk ! If more than 1 server could write to the new disk, data corruption will occur as each server doesn't know what the other(s) is (are) doing to it. If you need concurrent access: share it "NAS style" (file level / CIFS) through a NAS or by using 1 server as a file server.
RRR
4 Operator
•
5.7K Posts
1
June 6th, 2011 00:00
Hello devraylor,
Welcome to the forums. Flare 7 is quite old. Did you buy this CX300 2nd hand perhaps ? PowerPath 3 is quite old now as well. We’re well in the 5.x nowadays.
But to answer your question: a CX300 is a block addressable storage array. You’ll create LUNs on it and attach these to hosts. This host will see the new LUN as a newly attached disk and you can format it as it were a local disk. To share this with other servers, you can then do 2 things:
- Shared access: create a share on this new drive on this host and have other hosts connect to this share
- Clustered access: mask this LUN to (an)other host(s) and make sure the cluster software is working as it should. You shouldn’t attach a LUN to 2 hosts unless it’s a cluster
devtaylor
5 Posts
0
June 6th, 2011 09:00
Hi RRR,
Thank you for your answer.
Yes, it is a second hand.
So, I need to connect the device to a host server and from there share it as it is needed. What would I need to run on the host? Will the powerpath software be all I need to make it a host and be able to share it?
Also, the connection to the host needs to be through the fibre ports or can the LAN port on the SPs be used for connectivity?
To upgrade the FLARE and the powerpath, is there a difference between buying a full license as supposed to an upgrade? Would we need to buy full license as it is a second hand? Also would it be recommended/needed? At least for now we just want to use it as standard drive for storage.
Again, thank you very much for your time and patience.
Devin.
RRR
4 Operator
•
5.7K Posts
1
June 7th, 2011 00:00
also take a look at this post: https://community.emc.com/message/549294
devtaylor
5 Posts
0
June 9th, 2011 13:00
The CX300 is accessible and configured, as far as I can tell. The issue is connecting the host. We are trying to use an unmanaged connection to a Debian server. We configured the server as a host on the CX300 and add it to storage group and assigned LUNs to it.
On the server we don't show any disks.
Got a windows 2000 server going as well, installed powerpath on this server but it is not finding the CX and no disk drives on it.
Does it only work if connected to the fibre ports on the SPs? or can one make the connection to the LAN port?
Thanks for the help RRR
Devin
dynamox
9 Legend
•
20.4K Posts
1
June 9th, 2011 18:00
unless this is cx300i that has iSCSI ports, yes ..you will need to have FC connectivity. Pop an HBA into your server and connect it directly to one of the ports on SP. The LAN port you are talking about is for management only, not fo actual storage connectivity.
RRR
4 Operator
•
5.7K Posts
0
June 10th, 2011 04:00
Do you use FC switches or were you indeed planning on LAN connectivity ? A true CX300 (so not the CX300i) only has FC connectivity.
To be able to use FC connectivity, you can either direct connect from HBA to SPA/B or use a SAN, so you can connect more than just 2 hosts. If you use a SAN you need to decide whether or not you use zoning or accept the default which is to grant every HBA access to all other ports visible on the Fabric. In most cases you'd use zoning. A zone is a sort of "tunnel" with 2 members: the wwpn of the HBA and the wwpn of a Storage Processor port. For maximum High Availability make sure each HBA is zones to each Storage Processor:
- HBA 1 - SPA 0
- HBA 1 - SPB 1
- HBA 2 - SPA 1
- HBA 2 - SPB 0
Don't forget to insert the 4 new zones to the active zoneset.
Don't forget to activate the zoneset.
If you now look at the connectivity status in Navisphere, you should be able to see 4 new entries which represent the newly added host. Select all 4 and register these as hostx. Addressing Hostx now means that all 4 paths will be involved.
devtaylor
5 Posts
0
June 12th, 2011 22:00
ok, this is making more sense.
So we will be getting an hba for the server to direct connect to the CX300.
Read on the CX300 that it supports FC-AL and FC-SW, I am guessing that as long as the HBA supports FC-AL we will be able to connect it directly to the server.
Reading on the DELL forums it seems they suggest the QLE2562 (Qlogic QLE2562 (dual ported 8Gbit/s PCIe HBA)) or QLE2462 (4Gbit/s dual ported).
We are looking to something smaller, like Qlogic QLA2322 2GB pci-x dual port.
Any suggestions or advice on this matter?
Thank you for your time.
Devin
devtaylor
5 Posts
0
July 5th, 2011 13:00
Just to finalize this.
After some time we have finially finished the configuration and we are currently using the CX-300. It is directly connected to a PE2950 (qla2342 HBA) running CentOS.
Once you guys cleared up our confusion the rest of the configuration wasn't complicated. We also had the hardest time trying to get it working on Debian but once we tried it on CentOS with the newest driver for Red Hat on QLogic, everything went smooth.
Thank you for your patience and help.
Mabro1
2 Intern
•
666 Posts
0
August 5th, 2011 04:00
This discussion was moved to the Clariion Support Forum to ensure it is visble to the Clarrion Community members.
Thanks,
Mark