On a VMAX, the device is no longer listes as the VCM device, it is the ACLX device.  You need to change the grepn command to search for aclx instead of vcm.

The /dev/sdb device shown in the syminq output above is likely to be the ACLX device.

As dynamox stated, you should strongly consider adding additional GK devices to this host if you plan on doing any significant management of the array using SE or Unisphere from this host.

emcmagic wrote: I understand the following is the command to create more gatekeepers. symconfigure -sid 123 -cmd "create gatekeeper count=6 emulation=FBA;" commit should this command be run by server SA who has SE access, or by storage admin? Would this GK be dedicated to this server only?

that command will simply create 6 gatekeepers, you will need to map/mask them to the host that you want to manage this array in the future. You have to run this command from a host that has connectivity to this array.

emcmagic wrote: So, if I have only one GK shown in syminq, does that mean we definitely only have one GK, are there any other commands to confirm? what could the impact be if we only have 1 GK? what are those contents will be stored on gatekeepers? Thank you!

gatekeer does not store any content, they are your "communication bridge" to manage DMX/Symmetrix platform. syminq queues the SCSI bus, if it only shows one, then you only have one. One gatekeeper is enough to get you going but if this is going to be your everyday management host you need to present more gatekeepers.

One more follow-up questions on what devices could be used for the host's GK.

I have server A and with mask view A-VW, A_IG, A_PG, and A_SG (storage group), server B with B_VW, B_IG, B_PG, and B_SG both of these storage groups use the same Port Group: FA's (5G and 12G)

1     There are no small size of devices in A_SG. However, in B_SG, I have 4 devices with the size of 3MB. Can I use these 4 devices for GK's on host A? If can, is this because both A_SG and B_SG share the same FA's(5G and 12G) ?

2.     What are commands to map/mask these 4 devices via FA 5G and 12G onto host A before I run symgate define?

3.     what is the command to list all hosts or mask views associating with 5G and 12G?

Thank you!

you will need to unmask those 4 devices from server B and mask them to server A. Mapping and Masking on VMAX is done using symaccess command.

Based on your steps, I did my own home work, and PLEASE VERIFY following steps:

(A_host and B_host share the same FAs: 5G:0 and 12G:0)

Unmasking and unmap 4 x 3MB devices from B host:

List all WWN's devices currently belong to:

symaccess -sid 1234 list devinfo -ig B_IG     # List all 4 wwn’s: 100000001-100000004

Unmasking:

symmask -sid 1234 -wwn 100000001 -dir 5G -p 0 remove dev AAA:AAD

symmask -sid 1234 -wwn 100000002 -dir 5G -p 0 remove dev AAA:AAD

symmask -sid 1234 -wwn 100000003 -dir 5G -p 0 remove dev AAA:AAD

symmask -sid 1234 -wwn 100000004 -dir 5G -p 0 remove dev AAA:AAD

symmask -sid 1234 -wwn 100000001 -dir 12G -p 0 remove dev AAA:AAD

symmask -sid 1234 -wwn 100000002 -dir 12G -p 0 remove dev AAA:AAD

symmask -sid 1234 -wwn 100000003 -dir 12G -p 0 remove dev AAA:AAD

symmask -sid 1234 -wwn 100000004 -dir 12G -p 0 remove dev AAA:AAD

Remove devices AAA to AAD from B_SG and also unmap from Fas

symaccess -sid 1234 –type storage –name B_SG remove devs AAA:AAD

masking and mapping  to A host:

Since all A_host's WWN's already exisits in A_IG, what can I do to mask AAA:AAD to A_host?

map to new sg:

symaccess –sig 1234 –type storage –name A_SG add devs AAA:AAD

THANK YOU!

you have to use symaccess command. Download and review Solutions Enabler Documentation set, very important that you understand what commands are used to manage DMX arrays, what commands are used to manage VMAX arrays.

could you please list detailed commands for me, unmasking/unmapping the device(VMAX) from A_host, and masking/mapping to B_host ? This will be my first shot.

Creating masking view will automatically create masking and mapping, for ig_group and sg_group, in my case, I need masking and mapping 4 individual devices...

are you familiar with DMX4 but not familiar with VMAX ?

I did not recognize "remove" and "unmap" would do unmasking , and "add" would do masking. That was why I was trying to figure out commands to do unmasking and then masking.

If someone can show me a few examples at beginning, it'd definitely speed up my understanding. Thank you for your help!

well, I can not say I am very familiar with DMX4, but I thought unmasking and unmapping are two steps (so masking and mapping), and using symmask commands, so, that was why I was imaging two steps in VMAX as well. Now I understand it is not the case in VMAX world.

https://support.emc.com/docu46994_Solutions_Enabler_7.6_Complete_Documentation_Set.pdf?language=en_US

grab this set of documents, excellent material and a lot of examples.

particularly, are you referring to this manual in reference to what we have discussed today?>

EMC® Solutions Enabler

Symmetrix Array Controls CLI

Sorry to add one more question.

I have added 4 GK's, now we have total of 5 if we run syminq. The other one is VCMDB device.

So, here comes my new question. In General, should VCMDB device also be saying on the server, or we can remove it, what kind of consequences are if move it?

Thank you!

if you define the 4 gatekeepers devices using symgate, they will be the first ones use for any symcli calls. VCM devices is not masking to a host, if you zone any host to an FA that has VCM device mapped to it ..it will appear automatically, you don't have to mask it. I don't care about VCM device being present on my hosts but if you really want to remove it, you will need to make it write disabled and unmap it from FAs. Before you do that consider the impact to end hosts. Some *nix hosts will create a nativie device for VCD device (for example /dev/sdc) and as soon as you unmap VCM from FA ..all the hosts will lose connectivity to that device and will most like start logging errors. You just need to plan ahead how you want to handle that.