RE: [suse-sles-e] Does multipath really works in SLES9 SP3?

From: Shelton, Darren (Darren.Shelton_at_acs-inc.com)
Date: Fri Jan 19 2007 - 21:08:12 CET 

Message-ID: <280B58D436A6664EAF8FDBFB94E6E3020E8775B1@dalexmb04.exchange.acsad.acs-inc.com>
From: "Shelton, Darren" <Darren.Shelton@acs-inc.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 14:08:12 -0600
Subject: RE: [suse-sles-e] Does multipath really works in SLES9 SP3?

This article is a pretty good description of getting multipathing up and
running on sles.
 

http://support.novell.com/techcenter/sdb/en/2005/04/sles_multipathing.html

-----Original Message-----
From: Alexei_Roudnev [mailto:Alexei_Roudnev@exigengroup.com]
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 1:53 AM
To: Peter Van Lone
Cc: suse-sles-e@suse.com
Subject: Re: [suse-sles-e] Does multipath really works in SLES9 SP3?

I don't know:
- it was a lab system, so it is on partnernet support, not full 8x5 one;
- I used Emulex LP8000 HBA cards, they worked perfect in Windows (I used
them to debug and test Windows NetApp FC multipath kit, with full success),
but I am not sure, if they are 100% supported in SLES9;
- I never find a way to report a bugs without opening full scale
trouble-ticket, and alweays had a problems opening such tickets thru the
partnernet.

I will try - at least, documentation is not correct.

I used SLES9 + LP8000 HBA with another SAN storage, but without multiipath,
in production for a long time, and did not experienced any problems.
When I tested mpio today (I really troubleshout NetAPP problem with Solaris,
so I used this SLES9 as a test system to verify, how NetApp and switch
works), I was surprised:
  * mpio works, after adjusting configuration to the reality;
  * when link1 failed, it switched over;
  * but when I turn link1 back, and when MPIO daemon try to restore old
path, system freeze until I disconnect
     this path.

I don't expect any problems with LP8000 card and driver, so I suspect mpio
software. Anyway, it is weird - this is canonical MPO combination - Emulex
card (no matter that it is older lp8000 - drivers are the same in general),
canonical MPIO (with the only one exception - I used 1 switch instead of 2,
with 2 separate zones), and canonical configuration (aside of the fact, that
YaST2 have mpio configuration which don't work at all).

> On 1/18/07, Alexei_Roudnev <Alexei_Roudnev@exigengroup.com> wrote:
> > - after all, first failure test with SLES9 SP3, build 2983 i386 smp,
with 2 Emulex LP8000 cards and NetApp
> > caused system freeze, when I tried to restore failed link.
> >
> > Does anyone ever use this multipath at all (succesfully)? I don't
believe, that it is usable in this shape. It is a very impoirtant component
of the SERVER
> > and it is a very critical one, so it must work perfectly (or it
> > can't be
used at all).
>
> to me, this is worth opening an incident.
>
> Make support make it work "perfectly" for you, to prove that it will.
> And, then report the results back to us!
>
> :-)
>

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: suse-sles-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional
commands, e-mail: suse-sles-e-help@suse.com

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri Jan 19 2007 - 23:12:24 CET