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13676
March 17th, 2010 10:00
Problems connecting an M610 Blade to an EMC AX150 SAN through a Brocade Silkworm 200e
Hi,
I hope someone is able to help me. I have two M610 Blades, one running Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 and the other running Windows Server 2003 R2 SE 32bit. The scenario is the same on both servers and the problem presents itself the same as well.
I am trying to connect the blades, containing LPE1205-M Fibre channel pass-through modules, to an EMC AX 150 and am unable to see any HBA's in PowerPath Administrator or Navisphere Server Utility. If I run HBAnywhere then I can see the HBA's without any issue and they pass all the self tests within that software. I have installed (what I think to be) the lastest firmware and drivers and have installed the latest version of both PowerPath (5.2.0) and Navisphere (6.20.4.2.0) for the respective OS on the Blades.
I am able to log into the SAN software and assign volumes to the servers, which then present as multiple volumes because I am unable to configure PowerPath to allow multipathing to present one volume. Because of this I am presuming that communication is ok between server and SAN and am presuming that the adapters are functioning correctly.
I hope all this makes sense (if not then please let me know what further info I can provide) and hope that someone can help me.
Many thanks,
Chris.
Dev Mgr
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9.3K Posts
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March 17th, 2010 12:00
Powerpath and the server utility only work if there's a connection (through the switch) to the array.
Unlike ethernet, in fiber channel the switches shouldn't be "wide open". So on the switches (the web-UI), you have to create zones to allow the HBA to connect to the array.
On Brocade switches the general steps are:
- create an Alias for each WWPN
- create a zone that includes 1 alias for an HBA, and 1 alias for 1 storage-array-port
You then create a zone for each link:
- Server1-HBA1 to SPA0
- Server1-HBA1 to SPB1
on the 2nd switch if you have one you create:
- Server1-HBA2 to SPA1
- Server1-HBA2 to SPB0
Now on each switch you create a configuration (I usually use something like "Switch1-today's-date".
Then you save the configuration and enable this configuration. After this the server should see the array in the server utility. After that's done, in Navisphere you can assign a virtual disk to the server. After that is done you rescan for hardware changes in the device manager and then Powerpath should be able to see the disk (and you can partition it in disk management).
Chris_Bush99
3 Posts
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March 18th, 2010 03:00
Hi there,
Many thanks for your reply. Unfortunately the zoning on the switches has already been configured and the AX150 can see the servers. Volumes have been configured and assigned to each server, but the server sees multiple volumes due to multipathing. I cant control the multipathing as Navisphere and in particular PowerPath cannot see the HBA's.
Many thanks,
Chris.
Dev Mgr
4 Operator
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9.3K Posts
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March 18th, 2010 07:00
Powerpath doesn't see HBAs; it sees disks, and only then does it realize it's going through an HBA.
So you need to check that you have EMC certified HBAs, HBA drivers, HBA firmware/bios, the appropriate STORport hotfix (assuming you're running 2003 SP2 or 2008), then I'd check HBAnywhere and verify if it sees the actual disks on each path.
Chris_Bush99
3 Posts
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March 19th, 2010 07:00
I have managed to resolve the problem by installing a copy of PowerPath 5.3.0 (which was very well hidden on the EMC website and according to the list does not support these adapters).
But now when I open PowerPath Administrator and expeand everything fully I can see the Storage Arrays, Disks and Adapters as I would expect. Navisphere now recoginises everything as well and the volume which I assigned in the SAN software now shows as a single volume in Disk Management.
Many thanks for your posts and support.
Chris.