Hi everyone,

 

I have some questions for the experts regarding a SAN configuration.

 

Configuration:

FAS3020c MetroCluster (2 sites, 16km distance)

2 FC-Switches on each site, each connected via ISL’s to the other location.

1 RHEL ES4 U5 Host on each site with a 4GB QLogic Dual Port HBA.

Each FC-Port on each Host is connected to one of the switches

FCP enabled and the cf mode is single image

Snapdrive for Linux on both Hosts.

 

Following situation:

Snapdrive for Linux currently does not support DM-Multipathing on RedHat Linux.

We have an open case with Netapp and they are working on the issue to support mulipathing (planned for Q1/08)

 

When I started I setup everything for multipathing because we thought the support for it would be released earlier.

I zoned the switches…

Zoning:

switch1 zone1: 0b(filer1)+0b(filer2)+port0(host1)

switch1 zone2: 0b(filer1)+0b(filer2)+port1(host2)

switch2 zone1: 0d(filer1)+0d(filer2)+port1(host1)

switch2 zone2: 0d(filer1)+0d(filer2)+port0(host2)

 

On the host I implemented DM-MP and use the mpath-Device’s to access the LUN’s on the cluster.

Each mpath-Device consists of 4 sdx-Devices(=the 4 paths to the LUN).

Example:

mpath0 (360a98000433464706334455142706e33)

[size=100 MB][features="1 queue_if_no_path"][hwhandler="0"]

\_ round-robin 0 [enabled]

 \_ 3:0:1:0 sdd 8:48  [active][ready]

 \_ 4:0:1:0 sdf 8:80  [active][ready]

\_ round-robin 0 [enabled]

 \_ 3:0:0:0 sdc 8:32  [active][ready]

 \_ 4:0:0:0 sde 8:64  [active][ready]

 

This is working fine. The customer already installed his Oracle RAC on the LUN’s/mpath-Device’s which where presented to the host’s.

 

And here my problem:

The customer can not wait until Q1/08 when Snapdrive for Linux supports multipathing on RHEL and I have to redesign the SAN to a single path configuration so SnapDrive is working and supported.

My questions:

Can I just use the sdx-Devices on the linux host’s and leave the zoning and multipathing as it is?

Will the cluster failover then work correctly?

Or should I deactive multipathing on the hosts and just zone one hba port to one filer fc port and use that sdx-Device?

 

I will have to implement multipathing for sure later when it is supported with linux and snapdrive so I prefer minimum or no changes to the current configuration J

Has anyone experience with such a problem/configuration?

 

Thankful for any tips & hints!

 

Best regards,

Alexander

 

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Alexander Schalek, Technical Services / IT-Infrastruktur
Bacher Systems EDV GmbH
FN 54202i, Handelsgericht Wien
Clemens-Holzmeister-Strasse 4
A-1100 Wien, Business Park Vienna, Austria
phone: +43 (1) 60 126-34 | fax: +43 (1) 60 126-4
e-mail:
as@bacher.at | web: www.bacher.at