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December 17th, 2009 07:00
What Purpose does the Navisphere Agent Server
I know that EMC has always recommended that the Navisphere Agent on all Clariion attached clients be kept at least within 2 version levels of the Array Flare Code. But..... What is the purpose of the Navisphere agent itself? I know it allows the Array Navisphere Web interface to be able to display OS information about the Host and it's LUNs (mounted filesystem, OS level ...).
But what functionality does it supply to the Clariion environment? Does it help with failover\trespassing?
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driskollt1
131 Posts
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December 17th, 2009 08:00
Navisphere agent sends host data about your LUNs to your CLARiiON. It also registers your initator connections under "connectivity status".
Without navi agent you can expect to:
Manually register your initators under connectivity status
When you add a LUN to the storage group, it won't tell you what drive letter, device path, pseudo path the host is using for it.
That's about it. You can do everything without the agent. I find installing the agent to be easier than not installing it. Sometimes a server (especially ESX, and yes I did enable the firewall ports and delete hostIDfile.txt) will be such a pain to get registered that I will just skip the navi agent.
So basically navi agent has nothing to do with the transfer of blocks. It is for registering connections and metadata. It doesn't require a reboot to install and it doesn't do much. Installing it is recommended, but if you really don't want to, you'll still work fine. You'll just have more steps to do when adding hosts.
jps00
2 Intern
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392 Posts
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December 17th, 2009 07:00
Hi.
I think you're confusing Navisphere ("Navi") with PowerPath.
Navisphere Manager provides a browser-based interface to the CLARiiON for system management. Through Navisphere Manager, multiple CLARiiONs and hosts can be managed. Typical management tasks include
+ Provisioning (configuring) storage objects, including drives, RAID groups, and LUNs
+ Managing the cache
+ Monitoring errors and alerts
+ Provisioning virtual LUNs
PowerPath is a host-based application adding multipathing as well as several other performance and availability features. For example, a performance-benefiting feature of PowerPath is that, with multiple active paths to a LUN, I/O load can be balanced across the storage processor’s front-end ports and the host’s HBAs to increase bandwidth and avoid bottlenecks. PowerPath is the EMC application that typically handles failover. Athough there are other host-based MPIO applications that perform a similar function.
A description of the different applications used with the CLARiiON can be found in the EMC CLARiiON Storage System Fundamentals for Performance and Availability document. This document is available on PowerLink.
needmorespace
3 Posts
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December 17th, 2009 08:00
No, I am not confusing Navisphere ("Navi") with PowerPath.
I understand the functionality of powerpath very well. I just want to know what part the "Navisphere Agent" plays in the over all scheme of things. The document you metioned/quoted does not explain "Navisphere Agent" roll.
I have had an EMC SE tell me that "Navisphere Agent" had some part in the failover/trespassing of LUNs. I can not understand what part "Navisphere Agent" would play in this. I am just trying to understand why EMC requires "Navisphere Agent" to be within 2 Revs of the Clariion Flare code when all I can tell that it does is "sends" OS info about the host and LUNs. Why can't a host be connected to the Clariion Array without having "Navisphere Agent" installed at all?
needmorespace
3 Posts
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December 17th, 2009 08:00