[Jisco]

Guys

I would like your ideas as to why I am getting dar0 and dar1 showing up please. I have had to re-install AIX on a box and now fget_config -Av now shows:

----dar0---

dac0 ACTIVE dacNONE ACTIVE

-----dar1----

dac1 ACTIVE dacNONE ACTIVE

Both HBAs are defined on the storage and are included in an effective zone.

Another thing is that I attached 8 SAN disks and only the first disk is showing up in aix and the same disk shows up on both dac0 and dac1. When I removed the first disk on the SAN, none of the other disks was picked up by AIX.

There were changes on the SAN switch but both switches now have a similar configuration and none of the other (7) lpars is displaying this problem. I have removed the fibre adapters (rmdev –dl dar0, dar1, fcs0, fcs1, scsi0, scsi1 etc) but the issue would not go away.

Another thing is that the install does not seem to be recognising the router as a DS4800 one. For example, on a box that is working correctly, I would get the following:

lsdev | grep dar
dar0 Available 1815 DS4800 Disk Array Router
en0 Available 06-08 Standard Ethernet Network Interface
en1 Available 07-08 Standard Ethernet Network Interface
en2 Available 08-08 Standard Ethernet Network Interface
en3 Available 0A-08 Standard Ethernet Network Interface

However, on the new box with problems I get the following even though (I believe that the other boxes were installed from the same CD set- AIX 5.3.0)

lsdev | grep dar
dar0 Available fcparray Disk Array Router
dar1 Available fcparray Disk Array Router
en0 Available 04-08 Standard Ethernet Network Interface
en1 Available 04-09 Standard Ethernet Network Interface
en2 Available 07-08 Standard Ethernet Network Interface
en3 Available 07-09 Standard Ethernet Network Interface

Notice that the other box clearly indicates that this is a “DS4800 Disk Array Router”.

The following are the effective switch configurations:

SWITCH 1:

:admin> cfgshow
Defined configuration:
cfg: Config220805
DS4800_LPARS; UltriumTape_A; prod_standby
cfg: Config220805_A
DS4800_LPARS; UltriumTape_A
cfg: LION_SERVERS_A
LION_SERVERS; UltriumTape_A
cfg: LION_SERVERS_CFG
LION_SERVERS; UltriumTape_A
cfg: onaira06
prod_standby
cfg: p570_lpars_cfg
p570_lpars
zone: DS4800_LPARS
1,0; 1,4; 1,1; 1,2; 1,3; 1,12; 1,13; 1,5
zone: LION_SERVERS
1,0; 1,4; 1,1; 1,2; 1,3; 1,12; 1,13; 1,5; 1,7
zone: UltriumTape_A
1,8; 1,9; 1,10
zone: p570_lpars
1,0; 1,1; 1,2; 1,3; 1,4; 1,5; 1,7; 1,12; 1,13
zone: prod_standby
1,7
zone: prod_standby_copy
1,7

Effective configuration:
cfg: LION_SERVERS_CFG
zone: LION_SERVERS
1,0
1,4
1,1
1,2
1,3
1,12
1,13
1,5
1,7
zone: UltriumTape_A
1,8
1,9
1,10

SWITCH 2:

:admin> cfgshow
Defined configuration:
cfg: Config220805
DS4800_LPARS; UltriumTape_B; prod_standby
cfg: Config220805_B
LION_SERVERS_B; UltriumTape_B
cfg: Config220805_copy
DS4800_LPARS; UltriumTape_B
cfg: LION_SERVERS_CFG
LION_SERVERS; UltriumTape_B
zone: DS4800_LPARS
1,0; 1,1; 1,2; 1,3; 1,4; 1,12; 1,13; 1,5
zone: LION_SERVERS
1,0; 1,4; 1,1; 1,2; 1,3; 1,12; 1,13; 1,5; 1,7
zone: LION_SERVERS_B
1,0; 1,4; 1,1; 1,2; 1,3; 1,12; 1,13; 1,5
zone: UltriumTape_B
1,8; 1,9; 1,10
zone: prod_standby
1,7

Effective configuration:
cfg: LION_SERVERS_CFG
zone: LION_SERVERS
1,0
1,4
1,1
1,2
1,3
1,12
1,13
1,5
1,7
zone: UltriumTape_B
1,8
1,9
1,10

Any ideas please?

Thanks

[steevojb]

Hi There

This is almost certainly a zoning issue. I personally keep my zones very strict in that I have a single HBA and controller in each zone. Therefore, each server has 2 associated zones. Whilst this my take a little more administration , you know exactly where you are.

quote from "DS4000 Best Practices and Performance Tuning Guide"

Best Practice: Create separate zones for the connection between the HBA and each controller (one zone for HBA to controller A and one zone for HBA to controller B). This isolates each zone to its simplest form.

HTH

Steve

[Jisco]

Hi Steve

Thanks you for your help yet again. I am now inclined to take your advice and reconfigure my zones with “a single HBA and controller in each zone” because my current configuration seems to be very fickle. However, I have not been involved at this level of SAN management before so the practical aspect of all of this is new to me. Hence I will be asking for your clarification as to how to map a HBA and controller in a zone configuration.

For example, I have a node called mars. Would it be:
1) zonecreate “mars_zone_0”,”fcs0_WWN,dac0; fcs0_WWN,dac1”
2) zonecreate “mars_zone_1”,”fcs1_WWN,dac0; fcs1_WWN,dac1”

Or can you paste an example of how it looks please?

Thanks

Jisco

[steevojb]

Hello again

Couple of initial questions

What model of SAN switch are you using ?
Are you running a single switch fabric ?

Steve

[Jisco]

Hi

We have a two-switch fabric, Brocade (IBM badged) B32 switches version 4.4.0.

Cheers

Jisco

[steevojb]

Hi

I always create aliases for the switch ports so that I know whats connected to what



alias.PR_DS4300_A:101,0
alias.PR_DS4300_B:102,0
alias.PR_VIO1_FCS1:101,1
alias.PR_VIO2_FCS1:101,2
alias.PR_VIO1_FCS0:102,1
alias.PR_VIO2_FCS0:102,2
zone.PR_DS4300A_VIO1FCS1_ZONE:PR_DS4300_A;PR_VIO1_ FCS1
zone.PR_DS4300A_VIO2FCS1_ZONE:PR_DS4300_A;PR_VIO2_ FCS1
zone.PR_DS4300B_VIO1FCS0_ZONE:PR_DS4300_B;PR_VIO1_ FCS0
zone.PR_DS4300B_VIO2FCS0_ZONE:PR_DS4300_B;PR_VIO2_ FCS0

Thats about it

HTH

Steve

[steevojb]

Hi,

As I said, I'm not looking directly for business but I work for an IBM business partner that provide consultancy at very reasonable rates. If you put a list together of a few things you would like to go over at your site. I could get a price together for you.

The forum is a way to get quick answers. From the questions you ask you seem to require more help.

Forgive me if this is not required,

Steve

[Jisco]

Hi Steve

You are right. I need help but the bean counters do not understand nor are they interested in anything that mentions money, never mind the benefits and the fact that it will save them money in maintenance. You would not even believe that we have two p570 frames and none has an internal tape drive (and consequently no bootable mksysbs!). I am the only one in my team and with nobody else to bounce ideas off of, I am often scouring the web for other people`s experiences and reading anything I can get my hands on to educate myself. I have never managed a SAN before so it`s been a steep learning curve sometimes... I have been banging on about further training for ages but I do not have any cover and as long as the service is ticking over the business are happy to continue. I left work after 9 pm on Monday trying to resolve a TSM issue....I have only just managed to persuade them to buy an internal tape drive and it`s still to be fitted in.

Anyway, that`s me done moaning. I will wait for all the talks about budget cuts to die down and then raise this one. I do REALLY need help for other issues such as NIM setup and a few other things as well. But I will make a business case.

Thanks for the example as well.

Best regards

Jisco

[steevojb]

no problem.

Does the output make sense ?

You will look back in a couple of years and find it was all worth the hard work. Having to look in this way ensures you don't forget what you have learnt.

Let me know how you get on with the zoning

HTH

Steve

[Jisco]

Hi Steve

You were right again. I restored a copy of the previous switch configuration and the problem disappeared. However, I noticed that I had to hareboot both switches for this to be effective at the AIX level.

As to your zoning config, to be honest, I see the pairing in the aliases but do not yet understand how you came about the HBA and controller references so I need to study it a little more to understand exactly what you have done and then replicate it for my environment.

Thanks very much

Jisco