UPDATE: Question on Tru64 5.1 and HSG80 snapshots

From: Martin Petder (martin@kungla.ee)
Date: Tue Oct 08 2002 - 10:06:58 EDT


A little thing that changed our perspective here on this error:

Namely another MA8000 here, connected only to Sun Solaris 9 server
started to show the same problems. So probably this is related to all
(?) newest Unixes.

It seems that the errors related to snapshot will start after a number
of snapshots in a row in both Tru64 and Solaris 9 cases.

And - clarification on the configuration list (the cache is mirrored).

The enivronment in question is:
- MA8000 storage (2xHSG80 with ACS 8.6S-8, ~10 units altogether),
     transparent failover mode, SCSI-3, MIRRORED CACHE.
- ES40 with Tru64 5.1, PK1, no clustering, Oracle 8.1.7, 2xKGPSA
- 2xSanSwitch 8EL, interconnected.
- Other servers connected to storage:
     - 1xWin2000 (Proliant, 1xKGPSA) server
     - 3xLinux server (Proliant, 1xQla2200)
     - 1xAS1000, Tru64 5.1, PK1, no clustering, Oracle 8.1.7, 1xKGPSA

> Having dropped to a little discussion here with HP support I would
> like to ask an opinion on:
>
> Whether it's possible to use HSG80 snapshot feature with Tru64 Unix
> 5.1 if the ACS version is 8.6S?
>
> Our tests seem to indicate and HP is trying to tell us that it's
> impossible (i.e. SCSI Unit Attention commands sent out by HSG80 after
> completion of snapshot would be interpreted by Tru64 5.1 as Scsi error
> messages and initiate a error recovery from the Alpha; which in turn
> would mess up HSG80 (disable the snapshot, log some ugly messages to
> fmu and in extreme cases crash the storage))..
>
> But HP is relying only on one document to say this (release notes for
> Enteprise Volume Manager 2.0C, Tru64 platform agent); it's not
> mentioned anywhere else (even in the later version, 2.0D release
> notes). We are not using EVM. And all other HPQ material seems to
> indicate no problems with Snapshots and Tru64...
>
> So the question is: has anybody anywhere been able to do a snapshot
> with HSG80, ACS8.6S(-*), Tru64 5.1 with AdvFS? Or are there any
> relevant patches to apply? :)
>
> The enivronment in question is:
> - MA8000 storage (2xHSG80 with ACS 8.6S-8, ~10 units altogether),
> transparent failover mode, SCSI-3.
> - ES40 with Tru64 5.1, PK1, no clustering, Oracle 8.1.7, 2xKGPSA
> - 2xSanSwitch 8EL, interconnected.
> - Other servers connected to storage:
> - 1xWin2000 (Proliant, 1xKGPSA) server
> - 3xLinux server (Proliant, 1xQla2200)
> - 1xAS1000, Tru64 5.1, PK1, no clustering, Oracle 8.1.7, 1xKGPSA
>
> So far ~80% of cases we're trying to do snapshots from units connected
> to ES40 would result in "Snapshot disabled", sometimes crashing one of
> the HSGs.
>
> When trying to do snapshots from other units (not connected to Alphas)
> we would get freezing of the CLI (both in SWCC and serial-port) and
> disabling of the original units and snapshot units. It doesn't happen
> when Alphas are not working.
>
> So - hoping for any ideas :)

-- 
Sincerely
Martin Petder
========================
Kungla Dialoog C.P.
tel. +372 6 115 300
fax  +372 6 115 301
e-mail martin@kungla.ee
========================


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