PowerPath 5.0.0 and Windows 2003 R2 SP1 just doesn't work???

Question

I went through the Navigator and it appears I'm in a supported configuration.
1. CX500 w/ Flare 19
2. Dell PowerEdge 2950 w/ QLE2462 and Windows 2003 R2 SP1
3. Brocade 3800s

I tried an upgrade from PowerPath 4.1.6.2 to 5.0.0 and started getting BSODs referencing emcmpio.sys. System would come up for about 60 seconds and then BSOD. I managed to get PP5 uninstalled and the problem went away.

Tried fresh install of PP 5.0.0 and it seemed that it was working however once I started putting I/O on the LUNs, paths would fail until the disks were gone and the system would eventually become unresponsive (hard reset required).

While working on this today, I noticed the release notes for PP5.0.0 went from A02 to A03 and the release date changed to 5/21/07. I've also seen some references to 5.0.1 for *nix. Is there a pending fix for Windows?

I'm using CommVault Galaxy's GridStor, which requires SCSI3 command support and the PP5 release notes indicate this is a newly supported feature so unless I'm mistaken, I HAVE to have PP5 to get where I need to go.

Also, I saw a mention on the powerlink web site that there was a hotfix from Microsoft related to MPIO or something that was needed. I cannot find that reference anymore. Any help here?

RWunsch · Answer

I also am having similiar problems with Windows 2003 SP1. When I upgraded the server went into a BSOD loop. I was able to get the server back up and used the clean utility switches referenced in the Power Path Admin Guide. When I used the clean utility it actually installed 5.0 without any problems. Didn't quite understand why that happened. I have a non-critical server that I did this testing on or I would really be in trouble. Currently I do not have any confidence in putting PP 5.0 on any of my production servers. I caution everyone to test PP 5.0 before they just drop it in production. I still have an open case with EMC. EMC support did tell me the documentation was wrong. When upgrading to 5.0 you need to remove the original installation of PP and then reboot. Then install 5.0 clean. The documentation actually tells you not to un-install first.

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PowerPath 5.0.0 and Windows 2003 R2 SP1 just doesn't work???

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