in Powerpath, disk numbering starts at 3?

Question

I have a windows 2008 server. Without PowerPath, Disk numbering for the SAN Drives in the storage tab of Windows Server manager starts at #1. But after installing Powerpath, it starts at Disk 3. Disk 1 and 2 show up as offline and I can't bring them online or anything - I don't think they're actual disks.

Has anyone had this problem, if it is a problem, and was there a solution?

Thanks,
Steven

bencrookEMC · Answer

are you connecting to a symmetrix or clariion?

skong · Answer

Currently connected to a CX-380, though at some point, the disks are supposed to migrated to a newly installed Symmetrix.Thanks!

dynamox · Answer

would you please post output from 'powermt display dev=all'

dynamox · Answer

when you go to storage group properties, LUN tab, make sure Host ID is set to 0 for the very first LUN.

skong · Answer

Online, Properties and Help. When I click ONLINE it says device not ready. When I click Properties and go to Driver tab, it says its a DGC LUNZ Multi-path Disk Device. The 'real' drives (that is, disk 3) says it's a powerdevice by powerpath

Allen Ward · Answer

When you right click on the disk (1 or 2) in disk manager what options do you have?

skong · Answer

Allen, I've tried reinstalling PowerPath and also removing the LUNs from the storage group and then adding them back in (with PowerPath installed), but no change

Here is the output for the Powermt command

Pseudo name=harddisk3
CLARiiON ID=APM00055200044 [NYCEAPIREPO05&06]
Logical device ID=6006016024091100A80F6904D0A2DE11 [REPO3_Backups]
state=alive; policy=BasicFailover; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP B, current=SP B Array failover mode: 1
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats ---
### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
3 port3\path0\tgt0\lun0 c3t0d0 SP A0 active alive 0 0
3 port3\path0\tgt1\lun0 c3t1d0 SP B0 active alive 0 0

Pseudo name=harddisk4
CLARiiON ID=APM00055200044 [NYCEAPIREPO05&06]
Logical device ID=600601602409110024CF4267D0A2DE11 [REPO3_Data]
state=alive; policy=BasicFailover; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP A, current=SP A Array failover mode: 1
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats ---
### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
3 port3\path0\tgt0\lun1 c3t0d1 SP A0 active alive 0 0
3 port3\path0\tgt1\lun1 c3t1d1 SP B0 active alive 0 0

Pseudo name=harddisk5
CLARiiON ID=APM00055200044 [NYCEAPIREPO05&06]
Logical device ID=6006016024091100FA7A6EB9D0A2DE11 [REPO3_LOG]
state=alive; policy=BasicFailover; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP A, current=SP A Array failover mode: 1
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats ---
### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
3 port3\path0\tgt0\lun2 c3t0d2 SP A0 active alive 0 0
3 port3\path0\tgt1\lun2 c3t1d2 SP B0 active alive 0 0

Pseudo name=harddisk6
CLARiiON ID=APM00055200044 [NYCEAPIREPO05&06]
Logical device ID=6006016024091100FA03EDD9D5A2DE11 [REPO3_Partition_1]
state=alive; policy=BasicFailover; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP B, current=SP B Array failover mode: 1
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats ---
### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
3 port3\path0\tgt0\lun3 c3t0d3 SP A0 active alive 0 0
3 port3\path0\tgt1\lun3 c3t1d3 SP B0 active alive 0 0

Pseudo name=harddisk7
CLARiiON ID=APM00055200044 [NYCEAPIREPO05&06]
Logical device ID=6006016024091100AC17A849D6A2DE11 [REPO3_Partition_2]
state=alive; policy=BasicFailover; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP B, current=SP B Array failover mode: 1
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats ---
### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
3 port3\path0\tgt0\lun4 c3t0d4 SP A0 active alive 0 0
3 port3\path0\tgt1\lun4 c3t1d4 SP B0 active alive 0 0

Pseudo name=harddisk8
CLARiiON ID=APM00055200044 [NYCEAPIREPO05&06]
Logical device ID=6006016024091100AD17A849D6A2DE11 [REPO3_Partition_3]
state=alive; policy=BasicFailover; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP B, current=SP B Array failover mode: 1
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats ---
### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
3 port3\path0\tgt0\lun5 c3t0d5 SP A0 active alive 0 0
3 port3\path0\tgt1\lun5 c3t1d5 SP B0 active alive 0 0

Pseudo name=harddisk9
CLARiiON ID=APM00055200044 [NYCEAPIREPO05&06]
Logical device ID=6006016024091100AE17A849D6A2DE11 [REPO3_Partition_4]
state=alive; policy=BasicFailover; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP B, current=SP B Array failover mode: 1
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats ---
### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
3 port3\path0\tgt0\lun6 c3t0d6 SP A0 active alive 0 0
3 port3\path0\tgt1\lun6 c3t1d6 SP B0 active alive 0 0

Pseudo name=harddisk10
CLARiiON ID=APM00055200044 [NYCEAPIREPO05&06]
Logical device ID=6006016024091100AF17A849D6A2DE11 [REPO3_Partition_5]
state=alive; policy=BasicFailover; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP B, current=SP B Array failover mode: 1
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats ---
### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
3 port3\path0\tgt0\lun7 c3t0d7 SP A0 active alive 0 0
3 port3\path0\tgt1\lun7 c3t1d7 SP B0 active alive 0 0

Pseudo name=harddisk11
CLARiiON ID=APM00055200044 [NYCEAPIREPO05&06]
Logical device ID=6006016024091100B017A849D6A2DE11 [REPO3_Partition_6]
state=alive; policy=BasicFailover; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP B, current=SP B Array failover mode: 1
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats ---
### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
3 port3\path0\tgt0\lun8 c3t0d8 SP A0 active alive 0 0
3 port3\path0\tgt1\lun8 c3t1d8 SP B0 active alive 0 0

Pseudo name=harddisk12
CLARiiON ID=APM00055200044 [NYCEAPIREPO05&06]
Logical device ID=6006016024091100A2799331D3A2DE11 [REPO3_Quorum]
state=alive; policy=BasicFailover; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP A, current=SP A Array failover mode: 1
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats ---
### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
3 port3\path0\tgt0\lun9 c3t0d9 SP A0 active alive 0 0
3 port3\path0\tgt1\lun9 c3t1d9 SP B0 active alive 0 0

Pseudo name=harddisk13
CLARiiON ID=APM00055200044 [NYCEAPIREPO05&06]
Logical device ID=6006016024091100B0C67465D1A2DE11 [REPO3_TempDB]
state=alive; policy=BasicFailover; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP B, current=SP B Array failover mode: 1
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats ---
### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
3 port3\path0\tgt0\lun10 c3t0d10 SP A0 active alive 0 0
3 port3\path0\tgt1\lun10 c3t1d10 SP B0 active alive 0 0

Allen Ward · Answer

So you provisioned the LUNs to the server before installing PowerPath? It sounds like once the OS knew about the multiple paths to the LUN, it didn't want to "forget" about them, even though with PowerPath in place, there is a new "disk" which presents the LUNs paths consolidated.

We don't have any Win2k8 yet, so I'm not sure what the exact menu option is, but in previous versions you could "remove disk" to clear them from Disk Manager. Unfortunately this might not work depending on how Windows sees these paths. You might end up having to remove the LUN from the host before you can clear it up, and then when you present it back it should come in clean (since PP is already in place).

dynamox · Answer

first thing that jumps out is policy, make sure policy is set to ClarOpt. Use "powermt set policy=co dev=all". Also you only have two paths to each disk, for best performance/fault tolerance it is EMC best practice to zone each HBA to SPA and SPB, for example:

HBA1 - SPA0/SPB0
HBA2 - SPA2/SPB2

i don't these items are the reason you are seeing disk numbering starting from 3, but in definitely something to think about, at least policy for sure. What failover mode did you set to in Connectivity status on Clariion ?

skong · Answer

Failover mode is set to 1. Just curious, what does this mean?Thanks,Steven

dynamox · Answer

Steven,take a look at this solution, it will explain it better than i ever will emc157830

SKT2 · Answer

BasicFail over is OK as long as he is using only one HBA. ClarOpt is not going to help with respect to load balance as there is no second HBA

dynamox · Answer

good point, it does look like there is only one HBA, Steven can you confirm ?

Allen Ward · Answer

OK, I think we found the problem. You can see the LUNZ devices and you shouldn't be able to any more. According to the documentation, the LUNZ devices should disappear as soon as the host is allocated it's first real LUN (LUN0).

The LUNZ device is used by the array to present a path between the HBA and the array until the first storage is allocated. I've seen problems on AIX hosts before where the LUNZ devices don't go away automatically, but I've never seen it on Windows.

At this point I think you should probably get a host Grab and open a case with support. I'm sure I'm not the only one though who would love to hear the root cause and resolution once you find it.

Allen Ward · Answer

Hmmm... I wonder what would happen if there were two HBAs and only one was in the storage group properly. Would the other one present LUNZ devices like this?

When you go into Navisphere and drill down to the host object under the Storage Group can you right click on the host and select "connectivity status" (you have to do this for the host not the array). What do you see in there? Are there two initiators or four? If there are four, are two of the listed under a storage group called "~management"? If so, click on the reconnect button and see what happens.

PowerPath

in Powerpath, disk numbering starts at 3?

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