660F,650F,630F Compatibility.

Question

Stupid question,   Does Dell PV 6XXF series all support UNIX servers too in SAN environement? I've seen many who use PV series in only Windows environement but not UNIX. And also FC HBA which support it for server connectivity is ONLY Qlogic HBA? What about Emulex or JNI?   Thanks,

Dev Mgr · Answer

Dell never certified the PV650/630 or PV660/224 for Unix (or Linux).

The PV650F is a Clariion system, so, tho not supported by Dell, connectivity may be possible if you use EMC guidelines. Dell never licensed any Unix software for this array (agent mainly), so management would be hard to do.

As for the PV660F connectivity to a Unix host was never intended, so you'll have to see what you can do by trying drivers. Management will probably be impossible (LUN management and error log gathering).

ccie4526 · Answer

If you use a console session into the 650F and pre-build your FC Array using the fcli interface (see www.hecomputing.org for more info and commands), the RedHat 9 QLA2200 drivers will see the drive array(s) as /dev/sd# drives accordingly.

I have a 6350 with a PERC2/SC to 3x18GbSCSI R5, and QLA2200/33 connected to a 650F with 630F, 9x36Gb R5 + HS, and 9x9Gb + HS. RH9 sees the PERC2/SC as a megaraid device as /dev/sda, the QLA2200 as a qla200 device with 9x36GbFC as /dev/sdb, and the 9x9GbFC as dev/sdc.

Tried to do this with FC1, the qla2200 driver wouldn't load on boot. I could insmod qla2200 post boot, but that was kludgy. FC3 gave me fits. I just downloaded the ISOs for FC4 today, so will try that eventually.

InvincibleGar · Answer

ccie4256,

Could you help me in getting the management software for this environment. I am trying to use a used 650f and 630. Am adept with the CLI in the Flare OS but cannot get the drives in the 630 to bind. Getting a HOST_DUAL_BOARD_BIND_ERROR. I am sure the managment software will help me out better than the limitted Flare code CLI. If you would be so kind, you can email me at imusicnospamplease@comcast.net. just take the "nospamplease" out the address.

Thank you,

Brian

khowatt · Answer

Do you have both LCC's on the 630F cabled to the 650F?  I had the same problem before with the drives on the 650F binding fine, but could not bind anything on the 630F.  It turned out that I only had one side cabled. (SPa -> LCCa).   I didn't have a cable to attach to the SPb side, so I just pulled SPb out of the chassis.  The error went away and I was able to bind the drives on the DAE without any problems.  Once I finished configuring everything via the FCLI, I replaced SPb and was still able to access the LUNs on the 630F, but I can't make any config changes to the DAE via the FCLI while the SPb is in the chassis. (until I get another cable, that is...)

InvincibleGar · Answer

khowatt,   It is funny that you posted this response today.  Just this morning I surmized that could be the issue so I pulled 1 LCC out of the 630 and 1 LCC out of the 650 and I was able to bind and all is well.   Amazing.   Thanks for the time putting in your response.   Now if I could only update my LIC and Flare so I could use 73GB drives.   Brian

PowerVault

660F,650F,630F Compatibility.

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