WindowsAdminGuru BLOG

If your server has two HBA cards connected to EMC SAN storage device, you can implement load-balancing, and fail-over on the HBA cards using the EMC PowerPath software. Powermt management utility helps you manage I/O paths from the server to the EMC storage device. In this article, let us discuss how to use powermt command with practical examples. 1. powermt display – Display High Level HBA I/O Paths powermt display command (without any arguments), displays the available HBAs and their current status. The following examples, shows that there are 2 HBAs connected to the server, both the HBAs are in active condition with 2 I/O path’s each. qla2xxx indicates that it is using the Q-Logic HBA card. This also indicates that the connected EMC device is CLARiiON, as it displays a value for “CLARiiON logical device count” as 1. C:\Program Files\EMC\PowerPath> powermt display Symmetrix logical device count=0 CLARiiON logical device count=1 Hitachi logical device count=0 Invista ...

I originally posted a Top Ten acquisitions list in September, under the assumption that after the blockbuster HP-3PAR buyout we may have seen the last of the big storage acquisitions for the year. Wrong. The storage industry capped a crazy year of M&A fever with the EMC-Isilon and Dell-Compellent acquisitions. With those additions, I had to knock off from the list a few of the relatively minor acquisitions of the year, including SolarWinds’ acquisition of Tek-Tools and Exar’s buyout of Neterion. Here's my revised list of the Top 10 storage acquisitions of 2010, in ascending order: #10: PMC-SIERRA – ADAPTEC Throughout the 1990s, Adaptec was synonymous with SCSI, and had a lock on the SCSI controller/adapter market. The company reached its heyday when it racked up revenues of about $800 million in fiscal 2000. But Adaptec didn’t see the winds of change blowing. PMC-Sierra acquired Adaptec this summer for a mere $34 million. In addition to Adaptec’s technolo...

Lets talk about SRDF feature in DMX for disaster recovery/remote replication/data migration . In today’s business environment it is imperative to have the necessary equipment and processes in place to meet stringent service-level requirements. Downtime is no longer an option. This means you may need to remotely replicate your business data to ensure availability. Remote data replication is the most challenging of all disaster recovery activities. Without the right solution it can be complex, error prone, labor intensive, and time consuming. SDRF/S addresses these problems by maintaining real-time data mirrors of specified Symmetrix logical volumes. The implementation is a remote mirror, Symmetrix to Symmetrix. ¨ The most flexible synchronous solution in the industry   ¨ Cost effective solution with native GigE connectivity   ¨ Proven reliability   ¨ Simultaneous operation with SRDF/A, SRDF/DM and/or SRDF/AR in the same system   ...

Single-initiator zoning rule :-- Each HBA port must be in a separate zone that contains it and the SP ports with which it communicates. EMC recommends single-initiator zoning as a best practice.   Fibre Channel fan-in rule:-- A server can be zoned to a maximum of 4 storage systems. Fibre Channel fan-out rule:- The Navisphere software license determines the number of servers you can connect to a CX3-10c, CX3-20c,CX3-20f, CX3-40c, CX3-40f, or CX3-80 storage systems. The maximum number of connections between servers and a storage system is defined by the number of initiators supported per storage-system SP. An initiator is an HBA port in a that can access a storage system. Note that some HBAs have multiple ports. Each HBA port that is zoned to an SP port is one path to that SP and the storage system containing that SP. Depending on the type of storage system and the connections between its SPs and the switches, an HBA port can be zoned through different switch ports t...

The global reserved LUN pool works with replication software, such as SnapView, SAN Copy, and MirrorView/A to store data or information required to complete a replication task. The reserved LUN pool consists of one or more private LUNs. The LUN becomes private when you add it to the reserved LUN pool. Since the LUNs in the reserved LUN pool are private LUNs, they cannot belong to storage groups and a server cannot perform I/O to them. Before starting a replication task, the reserved LUN pool must contain at least one LUN for each source LUN that will participate in the task. You can add any available LUNs to the reserved LUN pool. Each storage system manages its own LUN pool space and assigns a separate reserved LUN (or multiple LUNs) to each source LUN. All replication software that uses the reserved LUN pool shares the resources of the reserved LUN pool. For example, if you are running an incremental SAN Copy session on a LUN and a snapshot session on another LUN, the...

Any disk drive from any manufacturer can exhibit sector read errors due to media defects. This is a known and accepted reality in the disk drive industry, particularly with the high recording densities employed by recent products. These media defects only affect the drive’s ability to read data from a specific sector; they do not indicate general unreliability of the disk drive. The disk drives that EMC purchases from its vendors are within specifications for soft media errors according to the vendors as well as EMC’s own Supply Base Management organization. Prior to shipment from manufacturing, disk drives have a surface scan operation performed that detects and reallocates any sectors that are defective. This operation is run to reduce the possibility that a disk drive will experience soft media errors in operation. Improper handling after leaving EMC manufacturing can lead to the creation of additional media defects, as can improper drive handling during installation ...

To setup Replication Manager you must perform the following tasks: 1) Verify that your environment has the minimum required storage hardware and that the hardware has a standard CLARiiON configuration. 2) Confirm that your Replication Manager hosts (server and clients) are connected to the CLARiiON environment through a LAN connection. 3) Zone the fibre switch appropriately (if applicable). The clients must be able to access all storage arrays they are using and the mount hosts must be able to access all storage in the EMC Replication Storage group. 4) Install all necessary software on each Replication Manager client , server, and mount host. Also install the appropriate firmware and software on the CLARiiON array itself. 5) Modify the clarcnfg file to represent all CLARiiON Arrays. 6) On Solaris hosts, verify that there are enough entries in the sd.conf file to support all dynamic mounts of replica LUNs. 7) Install Replication Manager Client software on...

The following major configuration steps for the storage, server and switches necessary for implementing the CLARiiON. Install Fibre Channel HBAs in all systems Install EMC CLARiiON LP8000 port driver ( For Emulex) on all system Connect each host to both switches ( Broace/Cisco/McData) Connect SP1-A and SP2-A to the first switch Connect SP1-B and SP2-B to the second switch Note:- You can use cross SP connection for HA and connect SPA1 and SPB1 to first switch and SPB2 and SPA2 to the second switch. Install Operating System on windows/solaris/linux/Vmware hosts Connect all hosts to the Ethernet LAN Install EMC CLARiiON Agent Configurator/Navisphere Agent on all hosts Install EMC CLARiiON ATF software on all hosts if you are not using EMC powerpath fail-over software otherwise install supported version EMC Powerpath on all hosts. Install the Navisphere Manager on one of the NT hosts Configure Storage Groups using the Navisphere Manager Assign Storage groups to hosts as dedi...

EMC Unified Storage is 20% more efficient that the competition. Even Erik Estrada from CHiPS knows that now.It's simple to be efficient with EMC EMC unified storage makes it simple for you to contain information growth and satisfy the needs of your data-hungry virtual machines while requiring 20% less raw capacity. This works to your advantage when comparing EMC to other unified storage arrays. If, for some unlikely reason, EMC isn’t 20% more efficient, we'll match the shortfall with additional storage—that's how confident we are. Find out more :- http://bit.ly/EMCGuaranteeST

CLARiiON Flare release 29 (04.29.000.5.001) introduce support for several new features as follow: 1) Virtualization-aware Navisphere Manager - Discovery of VMware client always were difficult in earlier release but Flare 29 enables CLARiiON CX4 users and VMware administrators to reduce infrastructure reporting time from hours to minutes. Earlier releases have allowed only a single IP address to be assigned to each iSCSI physical port. With Flare 29, the ability to define multiple virtual iSCSI ports on each physical port has been added along with the ability to tag each virtual port with unique VLAN tag. VLAN tagging has also been added to the single Management Port interface. It should be noted that the IP address and VLAN tag assignments should be carefully coordinated with those supporting the network infrastructure where the storage system will operate 2) Built-in policy-based spin down of idle SATA II drives for CLARiiON CX4 - Lowers power requirements in environme...

EMC Unisphere - Next generation storage management that provides single and simple interface for both current and future clariion and celerra series. Unisphere provides capability to integrate other element manager and provides built in support tool, software download and live chat etc.  Note :-  Unisphere features will be available in Q3 2010: Check out demo about EMC Unisphere, presented by Bob Abraham: • Task-based navigation and controls offer an intuitive, context-based approach to configuring storage, creating replicas, monitoring the environment, managing host connections, and accessing the Unisphere Support ecosystem. • Self-service Unisphere support ecosystem is accessible with 1-click from Unisphere, providing users with quick access to “real-time” support tools including live chat support, software downloads, product documentation, best practices, FAQs, online customer communities, ordering spares, and submitting service requests. • Custom...