Sun Solaris Native HBAs and Drivers
Introduction
The purpose of this document is to answer the
most common questions regarding the Sun Solaris native HBAs and drivers.
Question: WHAT IS
LEADVILLE/SUN SAN 4.X?
Answer: Leadville is the
engineering code name for Sun’s native Fibre Channel HBAs and drivers. It is
the native Fibre Channel stack for Sun Solaris, also referred to as “Sun SAN”
in this document.
The physical HBA and the driver support are
separate issues, and customers have a choice of three basic deployment models:
• Use the Leadville driver with HBAs purchased from Sun. (These HBAs
are OEM products that Sun bought from Emulex and QLogic.)
• Use the Leadville driver with Emulex- or QLogic-branded HBAs.
• Use Emulex or QLogic HBAs with Solaris drivers developed by the HBA
vendors.
Question: WHAT IS MPxIO?
Answer: MPxIO is the disk device
multipathing component of Sun SAN. It is also called Sun StorEdge Traffic
Manager.
Question: WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF LEADVILLE?
Answer: The primary benefits are:
• Implicit port binding. Binding is done automatically and is
persistent until the user removes the target. The need for static binding in
the HBA conf file is eliminated.
• Easy HBA installation and configuration. After the initial Sun
native driver installation, patches can be automatically downloaded using Sun’s
PatchPro automated patch management tool.
• LUN and target management can be done online (no reboot required),
without the need to modify configuration files such as sd.conf.
Question: HOW MANY DEVICES DOES LEADVILLE
SUPPORT?
Answer: Sun
currently supports up to 256 LUNs / HBA port / target. Please refer to the EMC
Support Matrix for the most recent updates to this support limitation.
Question: WHERE CAN I FIND INFORMATION ABOUT
SUN SOLARIS NATIVE HBAs?
Answer: Refer
to Sun’s SAN website:
http://www.sun.com/storage/san
IMPORTANT: Refer to Sun’s SAN documentation, also available at
this website, for HBA install procedures. EMC does not re-document the install
procedures for Sun HBAs.
Question: WHERE CAN I DOWNLOAD THE SUN SAN
4.X SOFTWARE?
Answer: Sun
SAN 4.x software for Solaris 8 and Solaris 9 can be downloaded from:
http://www.sun.com/storage/san/
Various downloads are available,
but only the following is required to support EMC storage:
Install_it script
(e.g., SAN_4.4_install_it.tar.Z)
IMPORTANT: Sun SAN Storage Foundation Software is already
incorporated into Solaris 10 and therefore does not need to be downloaded.
Question: WHICH HBAS HAVE BEEN QUALIFIED BY
EMC?
Answer: EMC
has qualified Sun Native as well as third-party HBAs from QLogic and Emulex
with the Sun SAN stack. Note that not all Sun HBAs are supported by EMC.
Beginning with SAN 4.4.7a, Sun
SAN stack support was extended to some third-party Emulex and QLogic HBAs.
Please see the EMC Support Matrix for specific HBA drivers and SAN
versions supported.
Question: I NEED TO UPGRADE THE FCODE ON MY
SUN HBA, BUT CANNOT FIND THE FCODE PATCH AT SUNSOLVE.
Answer: The HBA Fcode patches are not available in the public patch
collection. A SunSolve login linked to a Sun Spectrum contract is required to
obtain Fcode updates.
Question: DO I NEED TO UPGRADE THE FCODE ON
MY QLOGIC OR EMULEX HBAs IN ORDER TO FUNCTION WITH SUN SAN 4.X?
Answer: Yes,
EMC recommends customers update their Fcodes to a supported version in order to
properly function with Sun SAN 4.x.
Question: I ATTEMPTED TO INSTALL SAN 4.X,
BUT THE INSTALL PROCESS FAILS AT THE AUTOMATED PATCH INSTALL SECTION.
Answer: The
install may fail if certain patch dependencies are not met. To solve these
problems, look up the patch dependencies at SunSolve and install the
prerequisite patches. Also, review the install log at:
/var/tmp/install_it_Sun_StorEdge_SAN.log
When the patch dependencies have
been satisfied, rerun the install script.
Question: HOW DO I VERIFY WHICH FCODE
REVISIONS ARE LOADED ON THE HBAs?
Answer: For Emulex HBA:
Run luxadm
fcode_download –p or
Use FCA utility to verify the
Fcode:
# /opt/EMLXemlxu/bin/emlxadm
Select the HBA:
emlxadm> get_fcode_rev
Emuelx FCA utility:
http://www.emulex.com/emc/support/index.jsp
For QLogic HBA: Use Qlogic SAN CLI utility to verify Fcode:
Run SCLI.
Select option 3, Display
HBA information.
Select option 1, HBA
information.
Select HBA port.
Qlogic SAN CLI:
http://support.qlogic.com/support/oem_emc.asp
Question: HOW DO I DETERMINE THE WWNs OF THE
HBAs?
Answer: For Solaris 8 and 9:
Run the following script to
determine the WWNs of the HBAs that are currently being utilized:
#!/bin/sh for i in `cfgadm |grep fc-fabric|awk '{print
$1}'`;do dev="`cfgadm -lv $i|grep devices |awk '{print $NF}'`"
wwn="`luxadm -e dump_map $dev |grep 'Host Bus'|awk '{print $4}'`"
echo "$i: $wwn" done
Sample output of the above
script:
c8: 210000e08b105e35 c9: 210100e08b305e35
where c8 and c9 are
the HBA controller numbers and 210000e08b105e35 and 210100e08b305e35 are
the worldwide port names of the HBAs.
For Solaris 10:
Run the following command:
“fcinfo hba-port”
Question: IS MPxIO MULTIPATHING QUALIFIED
WITH EMC STORAGE?
Answer: Yes, MPxIO is qualified with EMC storage with the
following considerations and exceptions:
• May require manual changes to
the scsi_vhci.conf
(for Solaris 8, 9, and 10), fp.conf (for Solaris 10), and optionally qlc.conf configuration files. (See details under HOW MUST MPxIO BE CONFIGURED IN A POWERPATH
ENVIRONMENT? on page 4.)
• Supported with Sun Cluster 3.X only in
configurations as per the EMC Support Matrix.
Question: IS MPxIO MULTIPATHING QUALIFIED
WITH SUN CLUSTER AND EMC STORAGE?
Answer: Yes,
but only in configurations specified in the cluster section of the EMC
Support Matrix.
Question: HOW MUST MPxIO BE CONFIGURED IN A
POWERPATH ENVIRONMENT?
Answer: For PowerPath 4.5 and below: If PowerPath is installed, then MPxIO must not be
enabled for any EMC devices. MPxIO may still be used to manage third-party
devices. MPxIO is globally disabled by default in /kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf
(on Solaris 8 and 9) and /kernel/drv/fp.conf, (on Solaris 10) so usually no action is required.
If MPxIO is enabled in scsi_vhci.conf (on
Solaris 8 and 9), or fp.conf (on
Solaris 10), then MPxIO support must not be enabled for any paths managed by
PowerPath, in /kernel/drv/fp.conf.
Refer to the Sun StorEdge Traffic Manager Installation and Configuration
Guide, available on the SunSolve website at http://sunsolve.sun.com, for
configuration details. For PowerPath 5.0x and above: MPxIO must not be
enabled for any devices controlled by EMC PowerPath. MPxIO may still be used to
manage devices not under PowerPath control. MPxIO is globally disabled by
default in /kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf (on Solaris 8 and 9) and
/kernel/drv/fp.conf, (on Solaris 10) so usually no action is required. If MPxIO
is enabled in scsi_vhci.conf (on Solaris 8 and 9), or fp.conf (on Solaris 10),
then MPxIO support must not be enabled for any paths managed by PowerPath, in
/kernel/drv/fp.conf. Refer to the Sun StorEdge Traffic Manager Installation
and Configuration Guide, available on the SunSolve website at
http://sunsolve.sun.com, for configuration details.
Question: HOW SHOULD MPxIO BE ENABLED FOR
EMC DEVICES?
Answer: Starting
with SAN 4.4, MPxIO supports EMC® Symmetrix® devices. For configuration details, please refer to
the Host Connectivity Guide for Sun Solaris. Starting with SAN 4.4.7a,
MPxIO supports EMC CLARiiON® devices.
For configuration details, please refer to the Installation Roadmap for
CX-Series, AX-Series, and FC-Series Storage Systems.
Question: DOES VERITAS VOLUME MANAGER (VXVM)
USE NATIVE DEVICE NAMES (E.G., C2T0D1S2) FOR SUN SAN DEVICES?
Answer: For VERITAS Volume Manager 4.0 and below: No. VxVM will automatically use an array-based
naming scheme, also known as an enclosure-based naming scheme, for VxVM devices.
For example, vxdisk list will show
device names as “EMC0_1” instead of “c2t0d1”. It is not possible to switch to
normal device naming when using Sun SAN HBAs.
For example:
Here is a sample vxdisk list
prior to converting to Sun SAN:
c2t0d17s2 sliced emcdisk3 EMCUOL15 online
And here are the same devices
after changing to Sun SAN:
EMC0_1 sliced - - online
For VERITAS Volume Manager 4.1
and later:
• If EMC
PowerPath is installed on the host, VxVM will automatically use the
pseudo-based naming scheme for VxVM devices. However, it is possible to switch
to the native naming scheme by running the following command: vxdmpadm
setattr enclosure tpdmode=native. The following
command can be used to revert to a pseudo-based naming scheme: vxdmpadm
setattr enclosure tpdmode=pseudo.
• If EMC PowerPath is not installed on the host, VxVM
will automatically use the array-based naming scheme for VxVM devices. It is
not possible to switch to native naming scheme using Sun SAN devices.
• If MPxIO is enabled on the host, VxVM will
automatically use the array- based naming scheme for VxVM devices. It is not
possible to switch to native naming scheme using Sun SAN devices.
Question: CAN MPxIO COEXIST WITH VERITAS
VOLUME MANAGER (VXVM)?
Answer: Yes.
With both DMP and MPxIO installed on the same host, MPxIO will manage the
failover and multipathing functionalities.
Question: IS THE COEXISTENCE OF BOTH THE SUN
SAN STACK AND THIRD-PARTY DRIVERS IN THE SAME HOST SUPPORTED?
Answer: No.
The third-party drivers are not supported in the same host with the Sun
SAN stack.
Question: IF I AM USING QLOGIC OR EMULEX
HBAs AND DRIVERS, CAN I MIGRATE THEM TO THE SUN SAN STACK?
Answer: Yes.
If EMC PowerPath or VERITAS DMP is used to perform failover and multipathing
tasks, and all the file systems are mounted on either the PowerPath devices or
DMP devices, then uninstalling the current HBA driver followed by a reboot, and
installing the Sun SAN stack followed by a reboot, would complete the migration
process. All mounted file systems will be available after the migration
process. Development is underway, for customers using OS native devices, to
mount their file systems. Currently, migration is not supported in the
following two scenarios:
• If any file systems reside on the OS native
devices, then the migration will not be supported, as the file systems will not
be available after the migration process.
• Migration on boot from SAN is also not supported at
this time.
Question: WHICH HBAs CURRENTLY SUPPORT THE SUN SAN STACK?
Answer: HBAs
from Sun, QLogic, and Emulex are supported with the Sun San stack.
Please refer to the EMC
Support Matrix for the latest list of HBAs supported with the Leadville
stack.
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