Failover Mode for ALUA not working? VMware ESX

I might have answered my own question here.  Although looking back at the properties of hosts with Navisphere seems to indicate failover mode is still 1, I installed the Navisphere CLI and ran the command naviseccli -h 192.168.110.54 port -list -all

I received confirmation that my hosts were indeed configured for Failover mode 4.  Sample output below:

Information about each HBA:

HBA UID:                 20:00:00:00:C9:8F:B3:A3:10:00:00:00:C9:8F:B3:A3
Server Name:             solo.boche.mcse
Server IP Address:       192.168.110.8
HBA Model Description:
HBA Vendor Description:  VMware ESXi 4.0.0
HBA Device Driver Name:
Information about each port of this HBA:

    SP Name:               SP A
    SP Port ID:            2
    HBA Devicename:        naa.50060160c4602f4a50060160c4602f4a
    Trusted:               NO
    Logged In:             YES
    Source ID:             66816
    Defined:               YES
    Initiator Type:           3
    StorageGroup Name:     DL385_G2
    ArrayCommPath:         1
    Failover mode:         4
    Unit serial number:    Array

Information about each HBA:

HBA UID:                 20:00:00:00:C9:8F:B3:A2:10:00:00:00:C9:8F:B3:A2
Server Name:             solo.boche.mcse
Server IP Address:       192.168.110.8
HBA Model Description:
HBA Vendor Description:  VMware ESXi 4.0.0
HBA Device Driver Name:
Information about each port of this HBA:

    SP Name:               SP B
    SP Port ID:            2
    HBA Devicename:        naa.50060160c4602f4a50060160c4602f4a
    Trusted:               NO
    Logged In:             YES
    Source ID:             66816
    Defined:               YES
    Initiator Type:           3
    StorageGroup Name:     DL385_G2
    ArrayCommPath:         1
    Failover mode:         4
    Unit serial number:    Array

After changing the Failover Mode to 4 and verifying that it is at 4, is anything else needed to enable ALUA?  The ESX host is still seeing an active/passive array and so Round Robin load balancing doesn't work as designed. ESX is still sending all I/O over the Active path only.  Can you think of a reason why ESX is not seeing both paths as Active?

VMWare Native mulitpathing will always use one path. If you want to use more paths you should use powerpath/VE. 

Jason,

A few more thoughts. Below are a few quotes from two documents that will help you troubleshoot this. Search for these documents on Powerlink.

EMC CLARiiON Integration with VMware ESX Server

"On a CX3 or earlier CLARiiON storage systems, the Most Recently Used (MRU) or Round Robin policy must be used with failovermode=1."

Since you have a NS-120, that has a CX3-20 on the back end right? This would apply to you I think.

EMC CLARiiON Asymmetric Active/Active Feature A detailed review

"For VMware ESX 4.x, MPIO requires FLARE release 28 version 4.28.000.704 or later to support ALUA"

Aran

Correct Aran, ALUA is supported on release 26 CX/CX3 series array but not with MPIO.  Powerpath/VE is needed for ALUA on CX/CX3 series arrays.

Jason,

Take a look at the table on pg24 of the attached doc.

Also see page 18 - if you have CX4, flare 28.5, ESX4 and you want to use ALUA with native multi-pathing, you should use FIXED policy on hosts. PowerPath is still the best solution.

glen