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Help with VMAX Auto Provisioning Groups
Is there a way to turn off auto-mapping with auto provisioning groups on a VMAX? I'm sure I saw reference to this somewhere, but now I can't find anything. Ideally I would like to just turn it off completely, but if that can't be done I at least need to know how to bypass it for each operation. I've found information on how to prevent auto-unmapping when using Solutions Enabler, but nothing to prevent mapping. And I haven't found anything referencing doing this in SMC.
I'm digging through a bunch of documentation to try to find this answer, but so far I'm coming up dry.
dynamox
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March 9th, 2011 11:00
heheh..you got it Allen
1) GK multipathed - not an issue anymore, just like you my DMX3/4 GK are single pathed, my VMAX GK are multipathed. PowerPath is smart enough now to understand that it's dealing with gatekeepers so you are not going to have issues with syscall like before. ( I know i did with TimeFinder Exchange integration modules where syscall would get lost and my timefinder clone jobs would fail). I have multiple systems running SPA, SMC and ECC 6.1 U8 with multipathed gatekeepers ..no issues whatsoever. If you are still concerned, only zone from one FA. Yes, your gatekeepers will be mapped to all ports in the port group but zoning will prevent it from seeing it. You can get creative with that but i don't see the need. I've had multipathed GK on this VMAX for over a year now, no issues.
2) What if you have two masking viewes :
View 1 :
storage-group-R2
port-group
initiator group
View 2
storage-group-clones
port-group
For DR test simply swing your initiator group from View1 to View2 ? Devices are already mapped so it should be simply a matter of masking.
3) For AS/400 ..is it the same host that needs to see some devices multipathed and some single pathed ?
dynamox
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March 9th, 2011 11:00
what are you trying to do Allen ?
Allen Ward
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March 9th, 2011 11:00
You sound too much like me dynamox. What you are really saying is the same thing I try to say politely to our business users: "Don't ask me how to implement the solution you think is right.... tell me what the problem is and we'll come up with the correct way of addressing it"
There are three distinct situations I'm trying to address with this:
What it really comes down to is that i would like to be able to take advantage of the masking functionality of auotprovisioning without being forced to "take advantage" of the mapping.
Any thoughts?
dynamox
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March 9th, 2011 12:00
i have not tried it ..if it's giving you an error, create a dummy initiator group with some bogus WWNs. Let me think about AS400 situation ..that one is a head scratcher.
Allen Ward
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March 9th, 2011 12:00
Well we are making progress. If there are no longer issues with multipathed GKs than I'm happier than I was. It also means that I can cut down on the number of GKs required in some cases since I always account for the possibility of losing one path.
The option of making different Masking views and swinging the Initiator Group back and forth sounds good on the surface. When I try to create a Masking View in SMC without an Initiator Group it gives me an error though. Is this something you have tried? It sounds like it could potentially avoid the mapping/unmapping issue and be just as easy to work with as swapping multiple Storage Groups in an out of a single Masking View.
With the AS/400s, each host has a combination of devices that have to be seen down different multiple paths and some down single paths (the load source devices). AS/400 is NOT easy to work with on the SAN. There is a limitation of 16 devices visible down any one path (initiator) so my hosts actually have 6 HBA ports each that connect up to various FA ports on the DMX3 (for now). Two of those HBAs have to see one device each down a single path and the rest of the devices down both paths. The other 4 HBAs see the rest of the devices down two paths. Trust me when I say the spreadsheet to figure out the zoning, mapping, and masking in the first place still gives me headaches when I just see the file name (let alone open it up).
Is anyone out there doing AS/400 hosts on a VMAX? I can probably get away with another two years before I HAVE to move them over from the DMX3, but after that I have no choice (unless we switch to another disk vendor )
Govindagouda
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March 11th, 2011 14:00
Hi,
I think it is always my interest to use symcli and then create groups for storage devices, ports and intiator and then add them tothe view.
Because java based programs always show some monkey actions and we need to wait. Good thing with the 587.c we can run multiple scripts/commands ata time and no issues else if it was like 4772 then we shouls call emc and kill our sessions.
sauravrohilla
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March 13th, 2011 11:00
HI Allen,
Dynamox is correct about creating two masking views (one for Data devices and other one for Gatekeepers) to fix your multipathed gatekeeper issue. masking view for gatekeeper should have only one FA port in port group.
But if you have PP then you need not to worry about syscall issue as pointed by Dyanmox,
regards,
Saurabh
sauravrohilla
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March 13th, 2011 11:00
Govinda, when I started learning Symm, i used only cli and was reluctant to use SMC but now its the other way around I enjoy working through SMC now..it makes life so simple but java is still an issue..
BCC_SYM
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November 15th, 2011 23:00
Hi Govinda, Do you have any idea about a single symcli comand that can create regular devices and add it to storage group or any other group.
dynamox
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November 16th, 2011 04:00
there is no single symcli command to do that. symconfigure will take you as far as creating symdev and bind them to a pool. After that it's a couple of symaccess commands depending if you are provisioning to an existing host or new host.