Our 3590H's are dual attached to our TSM server via separate FC switches.
It does work as described below. I checked the atape manual . . . it
describes exactly what we've implemented.
Rick
Steve Roder
<spr AT REXX.ACSU DOT BU To: ADSM-L AT
VM.MARIST DOT EDU
FFALO.EDU> cc:
Sent by: "ADSM: Subject: Re: 2 fibre interfaces
per drive
Dist Stor
Manager"
<[email protected]
.EDU>
11/18/2003 12:02
PM
Please respond to
"ADSM: Dist Stor
Manager"
For the below to work, the book says that the devices have to be directly
attached to the HBA's. Has anyone tried configuring alternate path
support for SAN attached 3590-H's? The book says that it is not
supported.
> A recent version of Atape is required for dual path support. We use
> Atape 8.3.1.0.
>
> You also need to enable alternative pathing support on the rmt device
which,
> I think is set to off by default:
> i.e. chdev -l <device> -a alt_pathing=yes
> Then when you make the devices available to the host you will notice
> twice the number of drives. If you look at the device attributes with
> lsattr -El rmtx
> you will notice the location code xx-xx-xx-ALT or PRI ,
> the primary device value and the WWN. The latter will be
0xnnnnnnnnnn4nnnnn for
> the primary device and 0xnnnnnnnnnn8nnnnn for the alternative device.
> These allow you to 'pair' up the devices.
>
> If you have more than 3 or 4 tape devices I would recommend you employ a
naming
> convention to the devices to make these pairs more transparent, by
renaming them
> after cfgmgr has brought them into the system.
> Thus, we do a rmdev -l <rmtX> ; chdev -l <rmtX> -a new_name=rmtY
> such that the secondary / Alternative device name is 50 greater than
primary
> device name - i.e:
> rmt2 => rmt52
> rmt3 => rmt53 and so on.
>
> Note that errpt will log errors against both device names, depending on
which
> interface the drive was being accessed when the error occurred.
>
> Finally, our experience tallies with Steve Harris' - failover is seamless
> - we pulled the active cable from a drive while backing up (test !)
client
> data to tape and the backup carried on over the other path. TSM didn't
blink.
> We subsequently audited the tape and all was OK.
>
> Regards
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ian Smith
> Oxford University Computing Services, Oxford, UK.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
> ~>Mime-Version: 1.0
> ~>Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
> ~>Content-Disposition: inline
> ~>Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 08:48:41 +1000
> ~>From: Steve Harris <Steve_Harris AT HEALTH.QLD.GOV DOT AU>
> ~>Subject: Re: 2 fibre interfaces per drive
> ~>To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> ~>X-Oxmail-Spam-Status: score=0.0 tests=> ~>X-Oxmail-Spam-Level:
> ~>
> ~>Joni,
> ~>
> ~>Later versions of the Atape driver support dual pathing and failover.
> ~>Once set up, AIX defines two RMTn drives for each physical drive, one
with a
> device path ending in -PRI and the other in -ALT.
> ~>
> ~>As I understand it rudimentary load balancing is done - when the tape
is
> opened, the least busy path is used.
> ~>
> ~>Failover is also neat. I was running the tapeutil test command and
> deliberately varied off the adapter in use. The io just picked up where
it left
> off on the other path.
> ~>
> ~>See the Totalstorage Tape Installation and Users Guide, available from
> ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com for details
> ~>
> ~>Steve Harris
> ~>AIX and TSM Admin
> ~>Queensland Health, Brisbane Australia
> ~>
> ~>>>> Julian.Armendariz AT HBFULLER DOT COM 18/11/2003 7:13:13 >>>
> ~>IBM 3590 and 3592 drives have 2 fibre interfaces. I am unsure how to
> ~>manage the multipathing yet, but we are going to look at configuring
our
> ~>3590H drives that way next year to eliminate that single point of
> ~>failure. Our TSM server is running AIX 5.2ML2 which is connected to a
> ~>3494 library with 4 3590H drives which are connected to a Brocade 2800.
> ~>
> ~>
> ~>Julian Armendariz
> ~>System Engineer - UNIX
> ~>H.B. Fuller
> ~>(651) 236-4043
> ~>
> ~>
> ~>
> ~>>>> joni.moyer AT HIGHMARK DOT COM 11/17/03 12:48PM >>>
> ~>Hi everyone!
> ~>
> ~>We are in the process of formulating an AIX environment instead of our
> ~>current MVS TSM environment. We would have 2 TSM servers (one being
> ~>the
> ~>library manager) with 2 directors, 8 lan-free clients and 24 tape
> ~>drives,
> ~>which we hope to share between the 2 TSM servers. We would like to
> ~>have 2
> ~>fibre interfaces per drive in order to eliminate a single point of
> ~>failure.
> ~>My question is, how does TSM know which path it is using to the drive
> ~>and
> ~>how does it know that one of the paths to an individual drive is
> ~>already in
> ~>use? Is there software out there to manage this or is it done through
> ~>the
> ~>hardware configuration? If anyone has any suggestions I would
> ~>appreciate
> ~>it! Thanks!
> ~>
> ~>
> ~>***************************************************************
> ~>Joni Moyer
> ~>Highmark
> ~>Storage Systems
> ~>Work:(717)302-6603 **New as of 11/1/03
> ~>Fax:(717)302-5974
> ~>joni.moyer AT highmark DOT com
> ~>***************************************************************
> ~>
> ~>
> ~>
>
~>******************************************************************************
> *****
> ~>This email, including any attachments sent with it, is confidential and
for
> the sole use of the intended recipients(s). This confidentiality is not
waived
> or lost, if you receive it and you are not the intended recipient(s), or
if it
> is transmitted/received in error.
> ~>
> ~>Any unauthorised use, alteration, disclosure, distribution or review of
this
> email is prohibited. It may be subject to a statutory duty of
confidentiality
> if it relates to health service matters.
> ~>
> ~>If you are not the intended recipients(s), or if you have received this
e-mail
> in error, you are asked to immediately notify the sender by telephone or
by
> return e-mail. You should also delete this e-mail message and destroy
any hard
> copies produced.
>
~>******************************************************************************
> *****
>
>
Steve Roder, University at Buffalo
HOD Service Coordinator
VM Systems Programmer
UNIX Systems Administrator (Solaris and AIX)
TSM/ADSM Administrator
UB DNS Team
(spr AT buffalo DOT edu | (716)645-3564)
-----------------------------------------
The information contained in this message is intended only for the personal and
confidential use of the recipient(s) named above. If the reader of this message
is not the intended recipient or an agent responsible for delivering it to the
intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this
document in error and that any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying
of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication
in error, please notify us immediately, and delete the original message.
|
