symmetrix inquiry commands not working

If you are using EMC Solutions Enabler (TimeFinder, SRDF, ..), you
need Gatekeeper-Devices for the communication between the Host and the
Symmetrix.
If you have no or to few GK's, the SYMCLI will use data-devices
instead. This will cause reservation conflicts.

If you are running loops with symmir/symrdf -g verify, your
loop should include a sleep for a minute or longer. Otherwise you
needs a lot of GK's.

In the SYMAPI options file, you could change the parameter
SYMAPI_WAIT_ON_LOCKED_GK to ENABLE, too.

Don't share GK's. Assign a GK to only one Host-Adapter ! To use two
Host-Adapters for a GK could cause reservation conflicts.

check if there is any devices reserved

with EMC SolutionsEnabler you can check if any Symmetrix devices are
reserved by AIX.

First, I have created and activated the VG 'testvg':
#> lsvg -p testvg
testvg:
PV_NAME PV STATE TOTAL PPs FREE PPs FREE
DISTRIBUTION
hdiskpower0 active 259 259
52..52..51..52..52
hdiskpower1 active 259 259
52..52..51..52..52


With 'symdev -sid XXX -resv list' you are able to see all reservations
in the Symmetrix:
#> symdev -sid 739 -resv list
Symmetrix ID : 000182504739
Device Name Device Reservation
---------------------------- -------------
----------------------------
Physical Sym Config Initiator SA :P Type
---------------------------- -------------
----------------------------
/dev/rhdiskpower0 0006 RDF1+Mir 00 01A:0 Group
/dev/rhdisk7 0006 RDF1+Mir 00 12A:0 Group
/dev/rhdiskpower1 000E RDF1+Mir 00 01A:0 Group
/dev/rhdisk8 000E RDF1+Mir 00 12A:0 Group


When you varyoff the VG the reservations will be cleared by your node:
#> varyoffvg testvg
#> symdev -sid 739 -resv list
Symmetrix ID : 000182504739
No Symmetrix devices were found to have reservations.

(You can use 'sympd -sid XXX -resv' list to check only the hdisks
visible to the node running that command.)

Upgrade the following Microcodes / Firmware to the current Levels:
- Fibre Channel Adapter
- System/Service-Processor
- Switch
- EMC Symmetrix

Regards

powerpath is not installed on the host where symcli is installed ..just now i open a case with EMC..waiting for their call back..
in mean time if u suggest anything ..your help appreciated
thank you..

thank you all & emcpro..

EMC wants me to run grabutility on host ...mine is production box ..so is there any I/O degradation...i heard because i never run grab utility before ..so without options if i run that utility how much time it will take....is it ok to run..

thank you...

very negligible performance impact ...the utility will collect information about your host, patches, local and remote arrays etc. I always run it on my production boxes without issues.

simple thing but new to emc actally i am TSM admin here but no san admin so i take care of these things ..grab utility take some space to get info right ..symcli is installed on /usr/symcli and just 600M space left on that file system ..so can i put grab utility on /tmp path and run it will work or not ..and more over environment variable is not set and exported for symcli commands usvally i run all symcli commands at /usr/symcli/bin ...so if i run that one at /tmp it will work ???


thank you....

export your path first, type:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/symcli/bin

then cp grab to /tmp and run it from there.

It will run a few minutes depending on your host, perhaps even 20 minutes or so. I've never seen issues with any host at all. You don't even need to install emcgrab, simply run it. You can delete everything afterwards after you took the output file off of it of course, because you need to send that to EMC for then to analyse.

Can you please send me the SR# ? Id' like to check the SR and eventually update it.

good eyes

that's weird ..some kind of corruption ?

No .. usully it's a human error .. Some weird script or some bad command from CLI ...

I usually put /usr/symcli/bin in PATH just to avoid staying in /usr/symcli/bin to issue commands ... Being in a directory allows you to "touch" unwanted files .. and I don't want to touch my beloved executables

No .. I ran in a similar problem yesterday .. I lost "symdev" in the same way

how was it corrupted ?

agreed ..i just hate the fact having to have to cd into that directory to run stuff. PATH export is a must have for me.