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ESX 3.5 Cluster supported on CX4-480 Flare 30 ?
We have 4 ESX 3.5 hosts connected to CX4-480 Flare 04.28.000.5.707. We are going to upgrade to Flare 30 on this box. Just wanted to know whether ESX 3.5 Servers with Native Path Failover is supported by the new Flare code 30. When I checked on ESM, it did not show any specs of ESX 3.5 supported configuration.Can you confirm this is a supported configuration.
Also if we are going for Flare 30, which version I should go to ? I see lot of ETAs on Flare 30 and not confident enough to go for an upgrade on our boxes. Hows your experience with Unisphere compared to Navisphere so far?
Thanks a lot in advance.
kelleg
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January 28th, 2011 10:00
NDU question first. If you do not activate the new flare, the new flare is still installed and running, you just can't make changes to the configuration. This allows you to go back to the previous version if you experience issues with the new version.
ONn ESM - that's correct, you don't see the version numbers for ESX, so by default, it's supported. We're looking to the possibility of creating a simple flare to OS version chart - this will make these questions easier to answer.
For ESX 3.5 you could only use failover mode 1 on the array and MRU on the host - this will not change in flare 30. You might want to upgrade the server software on the hosts (CLI, Host Agent), but probably not necessary.
glen
kenn2347
542 Posts
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January 26th, 2011 08:00
I cant answer the ESX question for you but you should go to R30 .509 if you decide to upgrade.
Going from Navisphere to Unisphere GUI will take some getting used to. Everything that was in Navisphere is still there, it is just finding where they placed it. It took me forever to find how to see trespassed luns...
But since i have been using Unisphere for a few months, it is growing on me
kelleg
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January 26th, 2011 14:00
From the Release notes for release 30 - the latest available on PowerLink:
http://powerlink.emc.com/km/live1/en_US/Offering_Technical/Technical_Documentation/300-011-122.pdf
Supported
VMWare - ESX 3.0, 3.01. 3.02, 3.1, 3.5 and 4.0 – Virtual Machines: SuSE 9, 10, 11, Red Hat 4.0, 5.0, Solaris 10 x86, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 (NOTE: An exception to this is Windows Server 2008 VM on an ESX 4.0 server. This configuration is not supported)
glen
Narahari1
127 Posts
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January 27th, 2011 11:00
The link looks like it is the Unisphere Agent/Client/Off Array compatibility details for different host systems and not specific to Flare code 30 support matrix for host systems.
Does any of you have ESX 3.5 hosts running of CX4-480 Flare 30 with out any issues?
kelleg
4.5K Posts
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January 27th, 2011 14:00
You are correct, that is for the server software supported operating system. I've found that if you check the E-Lab for the particular operating system or array, that if it lists the CX4-series, then it's assummed that this is the current flare release. So the answer is that yes, ESX 3.5 is supported on flare 30.
glen
tkjoffs
159 Posts
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January 28th, 2011 01:00
Hi,
I am running and have been for a while 4.30.000.5.509 on my CX4-480 with ESXi 4.0/4.1 and some legacy 3.5 boxen. All work fine, no issues. Be sure to be careful with ALUA and the trespass problems with ESX (get PowerPath/VE if you can), but that is on any version. UniSphere is really different - but in a great way. You will have a learning curve, just work through it. All in all, no problems. If you are doing the FLARE upgrade yourself with USM be aware that the USM may hang during the SPB Flare install. If it does, just watch that the SPB reboots and comes online then go into the software section on the SPB properties and commit the new Flare code and you are golden. Of course, there is no warranty or liability to myself should you try that yourself - when in doubt pay EMC.
Ted
Narahari1
127 Posts
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January 28th, 2011 08:00
ESM will let you pick any host systems and any storage arrays and that does n't mean that any hosts on any storage systems are supported. When you add all items to cart and you generate a report, the results will show you if it is a supported config or not. And I dont see ESX 3.5 show up under Native Multipathing (NMP) section (Path Management).
We are not using ALUA for ESX ,so we should not be facing trespass issues if we upgrade to Flare 30. PowerPath on ESX 3.5 is not supported so no big deal. Can I use NST for Flare 30 install?
Another question, when we do a flare code upgrade it will list old version (Active) and new version (inactive) and we need to select new version and make it active and then the old one will disappear. What if I activate new flare and hosts started having connectivity issues and want to roll back to old version? Is rolling back the flare code is also online with data intact? I have never done that before. For newer CX storage systems, I have rolled back to older versions, by pulling out one SP, and uploading old Flare version to other SP via FTP/serial cable, and reinserting second SP after that, but that was when Array was fresh and nothing connected to it. Any idea how to roll back a flare with data intact and minimal downtime?