In case of SAN storage, most of the time we will be dealing with multipathing software to enable redundancy and load balancing of disks. The same is with 3PAR StoreServ.3PAR has HPDSMs for windows 2003 systems, but from windows 2008 onwards they are purely using native multipathing option to enable redundancy and load-balancing for SAN attached disks.
in this article, we will be exploring the possibilities of enabling native multipathing option from host side using CLI and windows add feature methods.
First of all, check HBA vendor documentation for any required support drivers, and install them. If necessary, install the StorPort miniport driver.MPIO is an optional feature in Windows Server 2008, and is not installed by default. To install MPIO on your server running Windows Server 2008,we should follow below mentioned method.
1. Open Server Manager. To open Server Manager, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager.
2. In the Server Manager tree, click Features.
3. In the Features area, click Add Features.
4. In the Add Features Wizard, on the Select Features page, select the Multipath I/O check box, and then click Next.
5. On the Confirm Installation Selections page, click Install.
6. When the installation has completed, on the Installation Results page, click Close. When prompted to restart the computer, click Yes.
7. After restarting the computer, the computer finalizes the MPIO installation.Click Close.
Other possible method is using command line tools and MPIO commands
To install MPIO on windows, run following command
/norestart is used to suppress the automated reboot after enabling the feature.Make sure to run the command using Administrator account or an account which has Administrator privileges else the command will not work as expected.
Once MPIO is enabled and system is rebooted, follow below mentioned tasks to configure your SAN disks.
1. On the Windows Server 2008 desktop, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click MPIO.
2. On the User Account Control page, click Continue. The MPIO control panel opens to the Properties dialog box.
3. In the MPIO Devices tab, click the Add button; the Add MPIO Support popup appears.
4. In the Device Hardware ID: text box, enter 3PARdataVV, and click OK
5. Reboot as directed.
Next is to setup multipath policy for the disks.Basically Windows 2008 server or later versions connected to 3PAR StoreServ requires round robin as the MPIO policy. The Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, or Windows Server 2008 R2 servers do not need to change the multipath policy, as it defaults to Round Robin. To verify the MPIO policy, follow these steps:
1 In the Server Manager, click Diagnostics; select Device Manager. Expand the Disk
drives list.
2 Right-click a 3PAR drive to display its Properties window and select the MPIO tab. Select
Round Robin from the drop-down menu
3 Click OK once you are done.
Let's see the CLI version,
Once MPIO is installed and enabled, next step is to scan for the SAN devices.
mpclaim is the basic command used to claim the attached SAN devices. Some additional switches are used along with the command to scan the attached devices, the are as follows,
-n Suppress reboot request (caller may need to reboot)
-i Add multipath support for device.
-a Work on all applicable devices.
Reboot as required.
Once reboot is completed, use mpclaim command to see the queried devices. Again there is option to be used along with the command.
-e Queries connected enterprise storage and displays as vendor-product id strings.
in this article, we will be exploring the possibilities of enabling native multipathing option from host side using CLI and windows add feature methods.
First of all, check HBA vendor documentation for any required support drivers, and install them. If necessary, install the StorPort miniport driver.MPIO is an optional feature in Windows Server 2008, and is not installed by default. To install MPIO on your server running Windows Server 2008,we should follow below mentioned method.
1. Open Server Manager. To open Server Manager, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager.
2. In the Server Manager tree, click Features.
3. In the Features area, click Add Features.
4. In the Add Features Wizard, on the Select Features page, select the Multipath I/O check box, and then click Next.
5. On the Confirm Installation Selections page, click Install.
6. When the installation has completed, on the Installation Results page, click Close. When prompted to restart the computer, click Yes.
7. After restarting the computer, the computer finalizes the MPIO installation.Click Close.
Other possible method is using command line tools and MPIO commands
To install MPIO on windows, run following command
C:\Users\Administrator>ocsetup MultiathIo /norestart
/norestart is used to suppress the automated reboot after enabling the feature.Make sure to run the command using Administrator account or an account which has Administrator privileges else the command will not work as expected.
Once MPIO is enabled and system is rebooted, follow below mentioned tasks to configure your SAN disks.
1. On the Windows Server 2008 desktop, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click MPIO.
2. On the User Account Control page, click Continue. The MPIO control panel opens to the Properties dialog box.
3. In the MPIO Devices tab, click the Add button; the Add MPIO Support popup appears.
4. In the Device Hardware ID: text box, enter 3PARdataVV, and click OK
5. Reboot as directed.
Next is to setup multipath policy for the disks.Basically Windows 2008 server or later versions connected to 3PAR StoreServ requires round robin as the MPIO policy. The Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, or Windows Server 2008 R2 servers do not need to change the multipath policy, as it defaults to Round Robin. To verify the MPIO policy, follow these steps:
1 In the Server Manager, click Diagnostics; select Device Manager. Expand the Disk
drives list.
2 Right-click a 3PAR drive to display its Properties window and select the MPIO tab. Select
Round Robin from the drop-down menu
3 Click OK once you are done.
Let's see the CLI version,
Once MPIO is installed and enabled, next step is to scan for the SAN devices.
mpclaim is the basic command used to claim the attached SAN devices. Some additional switches are used along with the command to scan the attached devices, the are as follows,
-n Suppress reboot request (caller may need to reboot)
-i Add multipath support for device.
-a Work on all applicable devices.
C:\Users\Administrator>mpclaim -n -i -a ""
Success, reboot required.
Reboot as required.
Once reboot is completed, use mpclaim command to see the queried devices. Again there is option to be used along with the command.
-e Queries connected enterprise storage and displays as vendor-product id strings.
C:\Users\Administrator>mpclaim -e
"Target H/W Identifier " Bus Type MPIO-ed ALUA Support
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"3PARdataVV " Fibre YES ALUA Not Supported
There are many additional switches which you can use along with mpclaim to enable and disable load balancing and fail over sequence.will discuss those in another module.
Happy Reading!
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