From: Deacy, Michael (Michael.Deacy@TycoHealthcare.com)
Date: Wed Nov 12 2003 - 11:52:40 EST
Many thanks to:
Mark Scarborough
Jean Marie Diaz
Warren Sturm
Bryan Mills
The original question was:
We are poised to connect a GS60E AlphaServer to an EMC Clariion CX600, with
McData switches (w/EMC tag on them), and dual HP FCA2354 2Gb HBAs installed
in the GS60E.
We're planning on running Tru64 5.1B on it and I've got a couple of
questions, which I'm also checking out with HP & EMC:
1. Is anyone else using Clariions and how have they been for you?
2. Can you use a Clariion device for a root disk? Any special
considerations?
3. Do you make use of failover/load balancing (assuming two fabrics)
and is that a Tru64 controlled feature or an EMC product?
# # # # # # # # # #
>From Mark:
I use EMC Symmetrix here and not Clarion, so I can't answer your first 2
questions, but I can partially answer the third one.
EMC does have multipathing software that they sell - at least for Symms -
don't know about Clarions - but Tru64 can do a good job all on its own.
You need to make sure that the corresponding disks on each path have the
same serial number for the Tru64 multipathing to know the disks are the
same. On a Symm you have to make sure the "CSN" (Common Serial Number) bit
is set on both paths. There should be something similar on the CX600.
The cool thing is that it "just works". You only see one device at the
/dev/disk level for each common LUN. You can see the multiple paths using
'hwmgr' like this:
# hwmgr sho scsi
The third column from the right is labeled "NUM PATH" and it shows the
number of paths to the device. Anything more than 1 has multiple paths...
:-)
Good luck!
# # # # # # # # # #
>From Jean Marie:
We are in the implementation stage of this project, having run with a test
unit for a couple of months, and are now staging the production unit in.
Our situation is 3 4.0F machines (1 GS140, 2 4100s, our existing production
systems) and 2 5.1A machines (2 4100s used for testing). We are not going
to 5.1B at present because our existing non-EMC storage is using HSZ70s
which are desupported in 5.1B. Once we've gone into production with the new
unit, we plan to configure bootable LUNs on the EMC and install 5.1A there.
This allows us to drop back to the 4.0F environment with much less risk and
less time wasted if we encounter problems in the upgrade.
Our EMC is a CX 400.
We are supposed to be able to boot off the EMC in 5.1A (this from a reliable
authority who does not work for EMC :-) but have not configured it yet. Load
balancing (in the sense of moving your bits down the least-loaded pipe from
the EMC to your server) is an EMC product.
In general I've been pleased with the Clarion, less delighted with the
quality of the documentation, and much less impressed with EMC's support of
the Tru64 OS. But so far it beats our old ESA1000+HSZ70+LSM+AdvFS setup
handily as far as configurability and clarity goes.
# # # # # # # # # #
>From Warren:
> 1. Is anyone else using Clariions and how have they been for you?
We have a CX600 and have been using it for the past 8 1/2 months in
production. It is connected to two brocade 16 port 2GB switches. We have
discovered that all the luns have trespassed over to a single SP and are
about to replace the other SP but it has been working and it seems to be
working reasonably well.
Cluster of two ES40s running 5.1B PK1. Two KGPSA in each. The firmware had
to be updated in the KGPSA. We use dual DEGPA gigabit ethernet adaptors
netrained for the cluster interconnect
> 2. Can you use a Clariion device for a root disk? Any special
> considerations?
Yes. You need to use wwidmgr at the srm promps to make the boot
device available to the system, all paths.
> 3. Do you make use of failover/load balancing (assuming two fabrics)
> and is that a Tru64 controlled feature or an EMC product?
>
Failover is usually handled by the CX600. If an ES40 goes, it is
the clustering setup that handles failover
# # # # # # # # # #
>From Bryan:
We have used Clariions on a TRU64 server in the past, although they were
left overs from an old Aviion in the Data General Era. They were also SCSI,
not fabric. They *should* all hang together as the fibre switches supplied
by both HP and EMC are just branded versions of the same manufacturer, so
everything should be recognised correctly.
Generally my experiences of Clariions is good.
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