man pages section 1M: System Administration Commands

stmsboot(1M)

Name

stmsboot– administration program for the Solaris I/O multipathing feature

Synopsis

/usr/sbin/stmsboot [[-D (fp | mpt | mpt_sas | iscsi) ] -d | -e | -u]
      | -L | -l controller_number]

Description

The Solaris I/O multipathing feature is a multipathing solution for storage devices that is part of the Solaris operating environment. This feature was formerly known as Sun StorEdge Traffic Manager (STMS) or MPxIO.

The stmsboot program is an administrative command to manage enumeration of multipath–capable devices with Solaris I/O multipathing. Solaris I/O multipathing-enabled devices are enumerated under scsi_vhci(7D), providing multipathing capabilities. Solaris I/O multipathing-disabled devices are enumerated under the physical controller.

In the /dev and /devices trees, Solaris I/O multipathing-enabled devices receive new names that indicate that they are under Solaris I/O multipathing control. This means a device will have a different name from its original name (after enabling) when it is under Solaris I/O multipathing control. The stmsboot command automatically updates /etc/vfstab and dump configuration to reflect the device names changes when enabling or disabling Solaris I/O multipathing. One reboot is required for changes to take effect.

Options

The following options are supported:

-e [ -E fp | mpt | mpt_sas | iscsi ]: Enables Solaris I/O multipathing on all supported multipath-capable controller ports, including fp(7d), mpt(7D), mpt_sas(7D), and iscsi(7D) port drivers. Multipath-capable ports include fibre channel (fp(7d)) controller ports and SAS (mpt(7D) or mpt_sas(7D)) controller ports. Following this enabling, you are prompted to reboot. During the reboot, vfstab and the dump configuration will be updated to reflect the device name changes. Specifying -D mpt, -D mpt_sas, or -D fp limits the enabling operation to ports attached using the specified driver.
-d [ -D fp | mpt | mpt_sas | iscsi ]: Disables Solaris I/O multipathing on all supported multipath-capable controller ports, including fp(7d), mpt(7D), mpt_sas(7D), and iscsi(7D) port drivers. Multipath-capable ports include fibre channel (fp(7d)) controller ports and SAS (mpt(7D) or mpt_sas(7D)) controller ports. Following this disabling, you are prompted to reboot. During the reboot, vfstab and the dump configuration will be updated to reflect the device name changes. Specifying -D mpt, -D mpt_sas, or -D fp limits the disabling operation to ports attached using the specified driver.
-u [ -D fp | mpt | mpt_sas | iscsi ]: Updates vfstab and the dump configuration after you have manually modified the configuration to have Solaris I/O multipathing enabled or disabled on specific fp(7d), mpt(7D), mpt_sas(7D), and iscsi(7D) controller ports. This option prompts you to reboot. During the reboot, vfstab and the dump configuration will be updated to reflect the device name changes.
-L: Display the device name changes from non-Solaris I/O multipathing device names to Solaris I/O multipathing device names for multipath-enabled controller ports. If Solaris I/O multipathing is not enabled, then no mappings are displayed.
-l controller_number: Display the device name changes from non-Solaris I/O multipathing device names to Solaris I/O multipathing device names for the specified controller. If Solaris I/O multipathing is not enabled, then no mappings are displayed.

Note that mpt_sas(7D) has MPxIO turned on by default. This means that when using the -L or -l option with -D mpt_sas, stmsboot does not display any non-multipathed and multipathed device names.

Usage

The primary function of stmsboot is to control the enabling and disabling of Solaris I/O multipathing on the host. The utility automatically updates vfstab(4) and dumpadm(1M) configuration to reflect device name changes. The system administrator is responsible for modifying application configuration (for example, backup software, DBMS, and so forth) to reflect updated device names.

The -L and -l options display the mapping between multipathed and non-multipathed device names. These options function only after changes to the Solaris I/O multipathing configuration have taken effect, that is, following the reboot after invoking stmsboot -e.

ZFS datasets, including ZFS root datasets, are correctly handled by stmsboot.

Examples

Example 1 Enabling Solaris I/O Multipathing

To enable Solaris I/O multipathing for all multipath-capable controllers, run:

# stmsboot -e

To enable Solaris I/O multipathing on multipath-capable mpt(7D) controller ports, enter:

# stmsboot -D mpt -e

To enable Solaris I/O multipathing on multipath-capable mpt_sas(7D) controller ports, enter:

# stmsboot -D mpt_sas -e

To enable Solaris I/O Multipathing on multipath-capable fibre channel controller ports, enter:

# stmsboot -D fp -e

To enable Solaris I/O Multipathing on multipath-capable iSCSI controller ports, enter:

# stmsboot -D iscsi -e

Example 2 Disabling Solaris I/O Multipathing

To disable Solaris I/O multipathing on all multipath-capable controllers, enter:

# stmsboot -d

To disable Solaris I/O multipathing on multipath-capable mpt(7D) controller ports, enter:

# stmsboot -D mpt -d

To disable Solaris I/O multipathing on multipath-capable mpt_sas(7D) controller ports, enter:

# stmsboot -D mpt_sas -d

To disable Solaris I/O multipathing on multipath-capable iSCSI controller ports, enter:

# stmsboot -D iscsi -d

To disable Solaris I/O multipathing on multipath-capable fibre channel controller ports, enter:

# stmsboot -D fp -d

Example 3 Enabling Solaris I/O Multipathing on Selected Ports

To enable Solaris I/O multipathing on specific fibre channel controller ports and disable the feature on others, manually edit the /kernel/drv/fp.conf file. (Seefp(7d).) The following command will update vfstab(4) and dumpadm(1M) configurations to reflect the changed device names:

# stmsboot -u

A similar procedure involving the /kernel/drv/mpt.conf file should be followed for devices attached by means of the mpt(7D) driver. For devices attached by means of the iscsi(7D) driver, follow a similar procedure that uses the /kernel/drv/iscsi.conf file.

Attributes

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
Availability	SUNWcs, system/library
Interface Stability	Obsolete

Notes

Solaris I/O multipathing is not supported on all devices. After enabling Solaris I/O multipathing, only supported devices are placed under Solaris I/O multipathing control. Non-supported devices remain unchanged.

For Solaris releases prior to the current release, the -e and -d options replace mpxio-disable property entries with a global mpxio-disable entry in fp.conf.

Enabling Solaris I/O Multipathing on a Sun StorEdge Disk Array

The following applies to Sun StoreEdge T3, 3910, 3960, 6120, and 6320 storage subsystems.

To place your Sun StorEdge disk subsystem under Solaris I/O multipathing control, in addition to enabling Solaris I/O multipathing, the mp_support of the subsystem must be set to mpxio mode. The preferred sequence is to change the subsystem's mp_support to mpxio mode, then run stmsboot -e. If Solaris I/O multipathing is already enabled but the subsystem's mp_support is not in mpxio mode, then change the mp_support to mpxio mode and run stmsboot -u.

Refer to the Sun StorEdge Administrator's Guide for your subsystem for more details.

Using `ufsdump`

The ufsdump(1M) command records details of filesystem dumps in /etc/dumpdates (see ufsdump(4)). Among other items, the entries contain device names. An effect of the “active” stmsboot options (-e, -d, and -u) is to change the device name of a storage device.

Because stmsboot does not modify dumpdates, entries will refer to obsolete device names, that is, device names that were in effect before Solaris I/O multipathing configuration changes were performed. In this situation ufsdump will behave as if no previous dump of the filesystem had been performed. A level 0 dump will be performed.

Procedure to Use `stmsboot` in Conjunction with Sun Cluster

If possible, invoke stmsboot -e before installing Sun Cluster software. After executing stmsboot, install Sun Cluster software normally.

If Sun Cluster software is installed before executing stmsboot, follow this procedure:

On each machine in the cluster where Solaris I/O multipathing is required, execute:

# stmsboot -e

...and allow the system to reboot.

When the system comes up, enter the following two commands:

# /usr/cluster/bin/scdidadm -C
# /usr/cluster/bin/scdidadm -r

The preceding commands update did mappings with new device names while preserving did instance numbers for disks that are connected to multiple cluster nodes. did instance numbers of the local disks might not be preserved. For this reason, the did disk names for local disks might change.
Update /etc/vfstab to reflect any new did disk names for your local disks.
Reboot the system.

To disable the Solaris multipathing feature, use stmsboot -d (instead of stmsboot -e), then follow the procedure above.

To view mappings between the old and new device names, run stmsboot -L. To view did device name mappings, run /usr/cluster/bin/scdidadm -L.

With active-passive storage arrays, it is possible that while your host is rebooting the array controller could failover the path that a particular target is using. In this scenario, fsck(1M) will fail to open the physical path listed in /etc/vfstab. The svc:/system/filesystem/local:default SMF service will transition to a maintenance state as a result. To rectify this, consult the documentation for your storage array to failback the path. The mpathadm(1M) can assist with determining the active and passive path(s).

Limitations

On x86 platforms, the current Solaris release does not support disabling Solaris I/O multipathing of boot devices attached by means of fibre channel. Solaris I/O multipathing is always enabled for supported fibre channel-attached boot devices. Disabling Solaris I/O multipathing in this situation must be performed on a per-port basis. See fp(7d).

Executing devfsadm -C removes obsolete device entries that stmsboot relies on. This will prevent correct operation of the -d option for boot devices (regardless of platform type) and the -L option.

SunOS 5.10 Last Revised 19 May 2010