Initiators not showing up on VNX??

You need a host to log into the array (OS on host) or you must manually register the host on the array.

Go to the mydocuments.emc.com and select VNX, then select one for the Server tasks - for installing a host.

glen

Did you add the host to a storage group?

See also:

1-Re: Initiators hosts recognized as "UNKNOWN"

2-Configure: Register initiators using Unisphere

3-http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/blogs/malhoit/quick-tech-tips/host-initiators-showing-warnings-vnx.html

4-Initiators hosts recognized as "UNKNOWN"

on HP blades (i have C7000 enclusures) if you get in the HBA BIOS it might login to the array but we've had mixed results. So if you are going to build a boot from SAN system you will need to manually register the initiators, another option is to boot from a Ubuntu live cd, it has built-in qlogic/emulex drives and should login not only to the fabric but to the array as well.

We have had multiple (>15) issues with HP blades in the last year or so. Gen6/7/8 - doesn't matter. So it could be a driver / firmware issue with the Enclosure/ILO/ OnBoard admin version - you name it. HP Support, at least in our experience - sucks.

We used to have Boot from SAN as well, on the HP blades, but having worked with multiple multiple issues with Gen7/8 blades on HP enclosures (C7000), we were fed up with HP (and the support) and put the OS on SD card.  Hope you are not using Boot from SAN.

As for the hosts, etc, - did you enable NPIV on the SAN switch? Usually, if you see the WWN of the Enclosure/ Chassis as Logged In but do not see tthe hosts, you would just need to enable this feature on the switch and you should be good to go.

Hey man_montain, i've found this old info on HP Support, it looks like there was a similiar problem in the past that HP recognize and theorically it was fixed, but maybe still happening in some specific conditions!

I would check the ammount of Blades you have in the chassis and if possible remove some of it and test to see the problem still persist, if not you know your problem! and you can tell HP about it! 

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A Brocade or HP B-Series Fibre Channel switch running Fabric OS v5.2.x has a limitation on the number of NPIV login requests that it will process at the same time. Therefore, when an HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure is populated with more than seven HP ProLiant BladeSystem c-Class Server Blades and each server's Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter

(HBA) is attempting to log into the switch simultaneously through a Virtual Connect Fibre Channel (VC-FC) Module, the login for some of the server blades may not be successful. When this occurs, some server HBAs may be prevented from logging into the switch and connecting to the remote storage.

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c00971076&DocLang=en&docLocale=en_US&jumpid=reg_r1002_ieen_c-001_title_r0003

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The article say 8 or more Blades, so try with less blades in the C7000.

Not sure your drivers and firmwares are up to date also, so would check that as well.

I don't think in this instance we need NPIV as there is no requirement to have more than 1 WWN on a switch port.

I have another problem where the OS was working fine off the SAN... On the VNX array there is a storage group with the host and 3 LUN's. Firmware on the blade was upgraded and now the balde won't boot up becuase it only sees 1 LUN (disk) and it doesn't boot.

On the array there is only 1 SP port showing logged in. The host is zoned to 4 front end ports but only 1 port is showing logge in for this host.

regarding NPIV question - it depends how how are you connecting your C7000 to your core fabric ? What kind of switches are in the C7000 and what kind of switches are in your core ?  The easier way to connect C7000 enclosure with Brocade/Cisco switches is to put Brocade into access gateway mode / Cisco into NPV mode. For that to work you have to make sure that NPIV is enabled on your core switch (it's all or nothing for Cisco and for Brocade i believe you can enable NPIV per port).

Regarding your boot problem, if you know that changes were made on the host side only ..then that's where you need to start troubleshooting. Did anyone mess with HBA Bios settings ? Can you verify HBA BIOS  on your mezzanine card is still enabled and your boot LUN is still configured.

c7000 is connected to core fabric by an ISL link an E port.

Brocade 16Gb/28c SAN Switch C8S46A are in the chassis. They are connected to 2 Brocade core switches 300b model and VNX is conencted to these.

From my experience with Brocade NPIV is enabled per port and switch is intellegent enough to determine if it is NPIV, E port, F port etc.

Yes HBA is enabled and can see 2 devices which it determines as DGC. I would imagine this is the same LUN which it sees from 2 paths to the 1 SP port logged in. It doesn't pick up the 3 LUN's. Strange host only logs in thorugh one port. On post can see this:

Device Device  Adapter Port  Lun   Vendor    Product          Product

Number Type Number ID Number ID ID Revision

       Disk      0    010400 0    DGC       VRAID             0533

Is this normal? Maybe this is just the communication path which will be the only one seen? Boot LUN is on the SAN. I don't believe it was changed but I can't be certain of this.

For Boot from San to work correctly, you need to ensure that the Boot LUN in the Storage Group is the HLU 0 setting. On the host, you need to set the HBA to use one path to the same SP that owns the Boot LUN.

For example, if the Boot LUN is LUN 37 (Array LUN Number - ALU) and the Host LUN Number (HLU) is set to  0 and the LUN is Owned by SPA (check the LUN 37 Properties for the SP ownership), then the path you set on the HBA would be to the SPA ports on the array. You only use one HBA to one SP port for booting. Boot will always use the 0 (zero) device for booting from.

You will not see the other LUNs until the host has finished booting. Check the Storage Group properties to see if all the paths (Initiators) from the host are correctly configured.

glen