Host Responsibilities

Question

We are working on a process to help keep Powerpath updated. We have some old versions and it is not clear who is responsible for keeping them updated. How are roles/responsibilities broken out at other companies (e.g. who is responsible for keeping Powerpath updated)? How is the storage team involved?

SKT136306 · Answer

We had a similar situation.. But it depends.. Now we have tuned the PP upgrade(if applicable) to happen along with yearly OS patching. Server team did ask about the new  verions to go with for the first time and later they did chose the version thier own  and advertised it. amogn the teams. If there is a  different openion the it will be discussed. ideally it is simple from the support matrix available from EMC/powerlink.

nystrole · Answer

When you're upgrading the disk array code (Enginuity/Flare) do you verify that all operating systems are running a supported Powerpath version? With so many hosts accessing a DMX it can be difficult to have them all at supported Powerpath versions. It also may not be possible to upgrade Powerpath to a supported version because of OS requirements, etc. How do you deal with this?

SKT2 · Answer

when we upgrdae the microcode we do check SE versions to keep them on supported version. Also its recommened to check your host agents to match with SE versions. We never checked PP version as part of code upgrade  as we know its an offline activity and we prefer to do this only once in a year.

nystrole · Answer

Thank you SKT. It is helpful to hear how other companies manage this. Any other people have any thoughts?

Joe_Ab · Answer

I recommend to run EMCReports on each server , analyze the results and plan for the next action . how frequently ? You should go for this quarterly.. its a quick check for the environment .You may discover a hidden issues ... its all under your storage team responsibilities ,, enjoy

hersh1 · Answer

We have it so the storage team decides what version each host will be using. The server team is then notified they need to upgrade since we don't have access to the servers and don't know the maintenance windows. We did create the silent install script for them to ease the pain of the install. We plane on checking quarterly and prior to upgrades to determine if we should upgrade.

PowerPath

Host Responsibilities

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