adding fa's

Question

hi guys,

i have a host which i want to move from its existing fa's (8b0/9b0) to (8b1/9b1)
i am thinking followinig are the steps i need to follow,

map existing devices currently visible through 8b0/9b0 to 8b1/9b1
zone hba's to new fa's
mask
make config changes in qla.conf and sd. conf to persistently bind hba's to new fa's and add entries in sd.conf for same luns to new targets
its a solaris 9, does update_drv -f sd followed by devfsadm work in getting visibility to the devices down 8b1/9b1? or will need reboot?

also once have visibility to new fa's, i want to remove masking and mapping to old ones.

please let me know if doing all or any of these has any impact on data integrity.

thanks in advance
vk

Allen Ward · Answer

I'm not sure about Solaris, but it sounds right.

I have tested this process on Win2K3 successfully and I am planning on migrating some AIX hosts using the same process. The only real difference is that we are using PowerPath and it sounds like you are not.

Allen Ward · Answer

We have actually done part of this process already on AIX. We have added HBAs to existing hosts and we have replaced HBAs on existing hosts. This isn't EXACTLY the same, but very similar. New paths appear and old ones die.

Just make sure you plan to clean up the old paths (including in PowerPath) after the move is complete so you won't have dead paths lying around to get in the way of troubleshooting after the fact.

dynamox · Answer

hahaha

dynamox · Answer

When i present new array to a Sun box (sparc), i have to modify lpfc.conf and sd.conf and bounce the box ..so i am afraid you might have to reboot the system to see the new FAs.

Allen Ward · Answer

Those darn Unix hosts Just switch everything to Windows. That way you won't be disappointed when you have to reboot... You'll just expect it and build it into your processes

vkinva · Answer

ok thanks so much for the infomation, we'll plan it with downtime.

vkinva · Answer

hey Allen,thanks for response,we're using powerpath and i expect to see the devices visible down 4 paths after allocating to the new FA pair. after verifying data, am going to remove masking and unmap to get down to 2 paths. I have mapped devs to multiple paths initially but not later and was just concerned about data availability issues if any. But sounds like ur experences say its fine.

Allen Ward · Answer

Good luck, and let us know how it goes. I know based on experience that it should work exactly as planned, but I'd still like to hear that it actually DOES work!

vkinva · Answer

sure will.

xe2sdc · Answer

In my sad experience with Solaris, I found that moving from a storage port to a different storage port MAY give headache to PowerPath ..

When you switch from old FA to new FA spend some time in verifying that powerpath discovered new paths ..

I won't swap persistent binding. Simply add new FAs after the existing ones .. Old disks used to be at target 0, new disks will use target 1 .. that's it

Symmetrix

adding fa's

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