Tricks to keep Linux PowerPath devices in sequence
I think I know the answer to this question already (tough luck) but does anyone have any tricks to keep PowerPath devices under RHEL the same based on LUN number?
It appears that the newer versions of PowerPath do not use the LUN/TARGET ordering any longer which has caused some heartburn for our Linux administrators when installing newer versions of PowerPath. I found some articles to work-around this emc113184 and emc119345 and verified that this appears to be "known" behavior.
My question is does anyone have a slick way to get around this "feature" and make some Linux admins happy?
Since this is known behavior I am reluctant to open an official case on this design quirk.
I did see this article, but this is basically just a different way of working around the problem instead of using that emcpadm tool which gives you a more direct way to rename devices. Looks like that emcpadm utility was only introduced in later version of PowerPath 4.x.
I'm looking more for ways to get more consistent results without having to juggle around the configuration file.
This is aimed mostly at clustering, but also been a problem with some software updates. Meaning LUN 0 presented will translate into emcpowerA, while LUN 1 will translate into emcpowerB, etc.
On upgrades have had cases were going from version say 4.x to 5.x a device that was emcpowerA is now emcpowerC because (I'm speculating) the rules changed.
i see. We had the same issue with our RAC servers, system admins had to manually rename them back to what they were before the upgrade, they were not too happy but then we don't upgrade PP too often ..sorry don't have any tips for ya.
I'm looking more for ways to get more consistent results without having to juggle around the configuration file.
Bonardg if I understand what the primus said, it's impossible by design.
PowerPath numbers its pseudo's based on first availability or in other words as the O/S has built the device tree based on device creation of the native devices. It is not based on the Host LUN presentation of the storage groups.
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Posted February 11th, 2008 06:00