Hello,
I've got 2 disk loops, both are dual attached. I've got 2 unused, dual port FC cards in slots 3 and 4. The cards/slots are listed as good for disks on the hardware guide. This is for a FAS3040, running 7.2.6.1.
Loop 1 is attached to port 0a and 0c. Loop 2 is attached to port 0b and 0d.
Can I do the following hot with no down time?
1) Unplug loop1 from 0a and plug it into 3a 2) Unplug loop1 from 0c and plug it into 4a 3) Unplug loop 2 from 0b and plug it into 3b 4) Unplug loop 2 from 0d and plug it into 4b
I would wait after each step and verify that the disks are visible via both adapters with a sysconfig -a before moving on to the next step.
I did open a support case with the exact text above. But all I got was a very non-technical answer:
In rare cases it can be done... but it always has potential for problems. I will say :”NO” to your question, It is not a good idea to do it “HOT”. It would be better to schedule a time when you can have a maintenance window (there will be downtime).
I can wait for an off peak time to try this. But I would rather not take the filer down to do it cold if there is a chance I can do it hot.
Thanks, Paul
Hi,
If common sense precautions are followed, i don't see any reason to take downtime for this. If something does go wrong, you can always do it cold. I would take a downtime anyway, just in case. But, may not use it.
-LOhit
On 6/4/10, Paul Letta letta@jlab.org wrote:
Hello,
I've got 2 disk loops, both are dual attached. I've got 2 unused, dual port FC cards in slots 3 and 4. The cards/slots are listed as good for disks on the hardware guide. This is for a FAS3040, running 7.2.6.1.
Loop 1 is attached to port 0a and 0c. Loop 2 is attached to port 0b and 0d.
Can I do the following hot with no down time?
- Unplug loop1 from 0a and plug it into 3a
- Unplug loop1 from 0c and plug it into 4a
- Unplug loop 2 from 0b and plug it into 3b
- Unplug loop 2 from 0d and plug it into 4b
I would wait after each step and verify that the disks are visible via both adapters with a sysconfig -a before moving on to the next step.
I did open a support case with the exact text above. But all I got was a very non-technical answer:
In rare cases it can be done... but it always has potential for problems. I will say :”NO” to your question, It is not a good idea to do it “HOT”. It would be better to schedule a time when you can have a maintenance window (there will be downtime).
I can wait for an off peak time to try this. But I would rather not take the filer down to do it cold if there is a chance I can do it hot.
Thanks, Paul
Not a chance I'd be willing to take. While it might work, I prefer to work under the premise of "Never force a protective feature". In this case, you are depending on all the load to switch from one channel to another when you disconnect from the current port. There is a chance for the momentary 'failover' to the single path to fail and bring a loop down completely, and I personally would not be willing to risk bringing down a production system.
-----Original Message----- From: owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com] On Behalf Of Paul Letta Sent: Friday, June 04, 2010 7:21 AM To: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Moving dual attached disk loops from one adapter to another -- HOT ??
Hello,
I've got 2 disk loops, both are dual attached. I've got 2 unused, dual port FC cards in slots 3 and 4. The cards/slots are listed as good for disks on the hardware guide. This is for a FAS3040, running 7.2.6.1.
Loop 1 is attached to port 0a and 0c. Loop 2 is attached to port 0b and 0d.
Can I do the following hot with no down time?
1) Unplug loop1 from 0a and plug it into 3a 2) Unplug loop1 from 0c and plug it into 4a 3) Unplug loop 2 from 0b and plug it into 3b 4) Unplug loop 2 from 0d and plug it into 4b
I would wait after each step and verify that the disks are visible via both adapters with a sysconfig -a before moving on to the next step.
I did open a support case with the exact text above. But all I got was a very non-technical answer:
In rare cases it can be done... but it always has potential for problems. I will say :"NO" to your question, It is not a good idea to do it "HOT". It would be better to schedule a time when you can have a maintenance window (there will be downtime).
I can wait for an off peak time to try this. But I would rather not take the filer down to do it cold if there is a chance I can do it hot.
Thanks, Paul
There are some risks involved, so lets start with the basic question. Why do you want to move the loops to the expansion cards in the first place?
Paul Letta wrote:
Hello,
I've got 2 disk loops, both are dual attached. I've got 2 unused, dual port FC cards in slots 3 and 4. The cards/slots are listed as good for disks on the hardware guide. This is for a FAS3040, running 7.2.6.1.
Loop 1 is attached to port 0a and 0c. Loop 2 is attached to port 0b and 0d.
Can I do the following hot with no down time?
- Unplug loop1 from 0a and plug it into 3a
- Unplug loop1 from 0c and plug it into 4a
- Unplug loop 2 from 0b and plug it into 3b
- Unplug loop 2 from 0d and plug it into 4b
I would wait after each step and verify that the disks are visible via both adapters with a sysconfig -a before moving on to the next step.
I did open a support case with the exact text above. But all I got was a very non-technical answer:
In rare cases it can be done... but it always has potential for problems. I will say :”NO” to your question, It is not a good idea to do it “HOT”. It would be better to schedule a time when you can have a maintenance window (there will be downtime).
I can wait for an off peak time to try this. But I would rather not take the filer down to do it cold if there is a chance I can do it hot.
Thanks, Paul
I want to attach FC tape drives to this filer. My TGA told me that tape drives are not supported on the FC cards I have in slots 3/4, but that they are supported on the onboard adapters 0a -> 0d. My disk shelves are supported in slots 3/4 with the FC cards that are there now. So instead of buying new FC cards for slots 3/4, I was going to move the disk shelves there and use the onboard for the tape drives. Is there a bigger issue with that plan ... above from doing it hot or cold ?
When I plugged the tape drive into the adapters in slots 3/4, it didn't work, I got:
[fci.adapter.error:warning]: Fibre Channel adapter driver encountered error "Failed to get connection type" on adapter 3a.
continuously on the console until I unplugged it. Same story for 3b,4a, and 4b.
My TGA followed up with:
... those cards are for disk shelf storage, not tape drives. For tape drives you'll need a part number X2053A-R6. Not a X2055A.
This 3040 was bought 3 years ago now, so its hard to remember everything. But it was configured with those cards to eventually add FC tape drives. My thought was that the disks were meant to be on the expansion cards from the get go, and leave the onboard for tape drives...
So to make it short.. my goal is to attach FC tape drives to this filer.
Thanks, Paul
Pascal Dukers wrote:
There are some risks involved, so lets start with the basic question. Why do you want to move the loops to the expansion cards in the first place?
It is not supported hot. You can panic the filer if you are unlucky doing this hot. If DOT happens to be performing a CP write to disk when you are plugging the loop in a new port it will dump core. This happened to a customer & we did a root cause analysis with tech support to find this out.
On a not-busy FAS you have a 1-in-10 second chance this will happen each time you plug in a cable. So, you have to ask yourself, "do I feel lucky?"
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 4, 2010, at 6:03 AM, "Paul Letta" letta@jlab.org wrote:
I want to attach FC tape drives to this filer. My TGA told me that tape drives are not supported on the FC cards I have in slots 3/4, but that they are supported on the onboard adapters 0a -> 0d. My disk shelves are supported in slots 3/4 with the FC cards that are there now. So instead of buying new FC cards for slots 3/4, I was going to move the disk shelves there and use the onboard for the tape drives. Is there a bigger issue with that plan ... above from doing it hot or cold ? When I plugged the tape drive into the adapters in slots 3/4, it didn't work, I got:
[fci.adapter.error:warning]: Fibre Channel adapter driver encountered error "Failed to get connection type" on adapter 3a.
continuously on the console until I unplugged it. Same story for 3b, 4a, and 4b.
My TGA followed up with:
... those cards are for disk shelf storage, not tape drives. For tape drives you'll need a part number X2053A-R6. Not a X2055A.
This 3040 was bought 3 years ago now, so its hard to remember everything. But it was configured with those cards to eventually add FC tape drives. My thought was that the disks were meant to be on the expansion cards from the get go, and leave the onboard for tape drives...
So to make it short.. my goal is to attach FC tape drives to this filer.
Thanks, Paul
Pascal Dukers wrote:
There are some risks involved, so lets start with the basic question. Why do you want to move the loops to the expansion cards in the first place?
Perform a failover in order to change these cables around. If you have to change the mode in the onboard FC ports, this reboot would be necessary anyway. If you failover, this is a routine operation as it's no different to other maintenance you may have to perform from time to time. If you try to do it live, everyone you talk to will continue to hoist disclaimers.
The real Achilles heel here is whether or not your hosts are setup properly to survive a failover/giveback. If you did not setup according to the NetApp best practices and set all the timeout values, etc properly and tested this before going into production, there is my disclaimer. Please also understand that timeout values are only a small part of the NetApp Host Utilities. Please refer to the respective documentation for all the settings and make sure the Interoperability Matrix endorses your complete configuration.
Good luck.
Stetson Webster Professional Services Consultant Virtualization and Consolidation NCIE-SAN, NCIE-B&R, SCSN-E, VCP
NetApp 919.250.0052 Direct Phone stetson@netapp.com Learn more: http://www.imaginevirtuallyanything.com
-----Original Message----- From: Herring, Jason [mailto:jherring@insightinvestments.com] Sent: Friday, June 04, 2010 10:34 AM To: Paul Letta Cc: Pascal Dukers; toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Re: Moving dual attached disk loops from one adapter to another -- HOT ??
It is not supported hot. You can panic the filer if you are unlucky doing this hot. If DOT happens to be performing a CP write to disk when you are plugging the loop in a new port it will dump core. This happened to a customer & we did a root cause analysis with tech support to find this out.
On a not-busy FAS you have a 1-in-10 second chance this will happen each time you plug in a cable. So, you have to ask yourself, "do I feel lucky?"
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 4, 2010, at 6:03 AM, "Paul Letta" letta@jlab.org wrote:
I want to attach FC tape drives to this filer. My TGA told me that tape drives are not supported on the FC cards I have in slots 3/4, but that they are supported on the onboard adapters 0a -> 0d. My disk shelves are supported in slots 3/4 with the FC cards that are there now. So instead of buying new FC cards for slots 3/4, I was going to move the disk shelves there and use the onboard for the tape drives. Is there a bigger issue with that plan ... above from doing it hot or cold ? When I plugged the tape drive into the adapters in slots 3/4, it didn't work, I got:
[fci.adapter.error:warning]: Fibre Channel adapter driver encountered error "Failed to get connection type" on adapter 3a.
continuously on the console until I unplugged it. Same story for 3b, 4a, and 4b.
My TGA followed up with:
... those cards are for disk shelf storage, not tape drives. For tape drives you'll need a part number X2053A-R6. Not a X2055A.
This 3040 was bought 3 years ago now, so its hard to remember everything. But it was configured with those cards to eventually add FC tape drives. My thought was that the disks were meant to be on the expansion cards from the get go, and leave the onboard for tape drives...
So to make it short.. my goal is to attach FC tape drives to this filer.
Thanks, Paul
Pascal Dukers wrote:
There are some risks involved, so lets start with the basic question. Why do you want to move the loops to the expansion cards in the first place?
-
Herring, Jason -
Holland, William L -
LOhit -
Pascal Dukers -
Paul Letta -
Webster, Stetson