660F on Windows 2003 in Direct Attach?

Question

I have seen several posts about the lack of support for the 660F/224F in a SAN environment.  However, does anyone have info on support of the 660F in a direct-attach environment?  Not sure if that makes any difference at all.  We have a PE2650 w/ QL2200 HBA.  SANsurfer sees everything fine but no love from array manager or disk manager.   Can anyone tell me definitively if I will ever get this to work under Windows Server 2003?   Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Dev Mgr · Answer

The latest/last Dell SAN support matrix can be found here.

It doesn't include Windows 2003.

If you're not concerned with failover, the only 2 things you'd have to work on are a Qlogic driver that will work with array manager to see and monitor the PV660F. As for which driver, it's a little hard to say, but the last matrix shows for Windows 2000 an old 7-series driver. I suspect that that driver won't work with Windows 2003 though.

You can try some of the older 8-series drivers if you can find them on the Qlogic site and see if you can get lucky on a combination of driver and array manager that will work to see the PV660F in array manager.

Storagetalk · Answer

In order for a PV660 to work with Windows 2003 you would need to be running SAN 5.3 software/config:   660 Raid Controler Version - 7.82 QL2200 driver - 8.00.09.24 QL2200 BIOS - 1.76 Array Manager 3.4 Storage C (if needed) - 5.00.37 QMSJ (not QLConfig) - 2.0.11   All but the Raid Controler are included on the SAN 5.3 CD.  But you can't buy those from Dell anymore.  You'd need to dig for that.   You might be able to get away with a SAN 4 config, but it's the driver comm to the RC that's going to be the ultimate deciding factor.

Storagetalk · Answer

If you don't already have a 7.82 raid controler then don't bother looking for any SAN 5.3 SW.  The 7.82 raid controler is key.  You can't flash a 660 raid controler to a new version, so you'd need the actual 7.82 raid controler part.

emilysam · Answer

Thanks for the info.  That is precisely what I was looking for.  Now the arduous task of tracking down everything on that list.

emilysam · Answer

Thanks.  In this case, there will be no data on the array.  It's being prepped for a new Disk to Disk backup staging area.  That said, I am going to modify the setup a bit and just run the Media Server software for the D2D application on Windows 2000 since it is supported by the 660F.  Thanks all for the excellent information.

bltserv · Answer

660F can be flashed to whatever version. But you must have the correct .ima file. So yes, you can go from 7.51 to 7.76 or 7.82 You will need 7.82 for it to work in 2003

Storagetalk · Answer

Ok, I was a bit misinformed. 7.51 to 7.76 is ok. 7.76 to 7.82 can be a little iffy. I guess if you're talking about there being no data...then you have nothing to lose. If there's data on the array and you want to upgrade...then flashing the FW could cause you to lose your data.

Sorry, my mistake on my understanding on the RC's for the 660.

thetootall · Answer

I'm in a similar situation where I purchased a 660F from a client when they upgraded to a 220F, and I have it directly attached with a QLA2200 HBA. I've got SANSurfer installed, and successfully bound the HBA to the SAN, even was a far as creating a virtual disk, but I the option to create a volume is greyed out. I'm using Windows 2003, with firmware 7.76 on the RAID controllers, bios 1.83/firmware 2.02.03, and QLDirect driver 8.01.12 on the HBA.   How can I go about getting firmware 7.82? I desperately want to get this working on Windows 2003!

thetootall · Answer

After some snooping around on dell's storage-sw FTP folder I came across StorageC 4.0, which installed and allowed me to bring the virtual disk online then create a volume, so all is well.   Now I'm somewhat of a newbie to SANs - can I hook another server w/ HBA to the other controller on the 660F and have it use the same volume, or can you only have it use space on the virtual disk and create a volume seperate than the volume being used by the other server?

Storagetalk · Answer

Technically, Storage C 4.0 is for Windows 2000.  You would need Storage C 5.0 for 2003.  But if it's working...good deal.  But don't be surprised if every now and then you have to remask a lun or two.   Yes you can hook it up...but you'll have to access a different volume.  Otherwise, you'd have two servers accessing the same volume at the same time....data collision....corruption.

emilysam · Answer

I'm not finding that on the FTP site.  What is the actual filename?

Dev Mgr · Answer

StorageC 5 is not available for download from the Dell site. It was only available if you purchased a SAN 5 install via sales (a tech would come onsite to install the setup for you).

thetootall · Answer

Storagetalk, thanks for the words of advice. I'm still in the planning phase right now, and currently only plan on using it with 2 servers, but if I grow it to more than that, how hard is it to move the environment to a fibre switch? Also if I wanted to allocate x amount of GB of the total space now and use more later is that possible, or would I just need to create another volume and mount it as a junction point?   Emilysam, the version of Storage C 4 I found on Dell's FTP is at  ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/storage-sw/sc4x27.exe.   Dev Mgr, I know I had read that in other threads, but any reason why a Dell tech onsite can faciliate a Storage 5.0 install?

Storagetalk · Answer

It's not too terribly difficult, you'd have to add your switch to the equation and then zone it for access.   Well you can approch the space you'll need from many angles.  You can use array manager to add space as you go along....you can destroy and recreate disk groups....pretty much however you want to do with it.  I just do it all the first time.  Set aside a nice sized chunk of space so I don't have to worry about it for a long time.   The tech coming onsite to do a SAN 5 install is more of a procedural thing.  Dell has to certify a config before selling you a multi-thousand dollar upgrade.  the tech comes onsite to make sure it's done right.  But in all reality...it's nothing more than just popping a CD in and hitting an exe.

bltserv · Answer

We were quoted $ 3000.00 by Dell for this. And you dont get a copy of the CD  ???!!! We wound up doing it on our own.

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660F on Windows 2003 in Direct Attach?

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