C H A P T E R 5 - Configuring SAN Devices

C H A P T E R 5

Configuring SAN Devices

This section provides the high level overview of the steps used to configure SAN devices. In Solaris 10, FCAL and fabric-connected devices are made available to the host automatically. This differs from previous versions of the SAN Foundation software running on the Solaris 8 or the Solaris 9 OS. In those versions, manual configuration steps were required to achieve fabric-connected device availability on the host. If you want to manually configure fabric-connected devices, please refer to Appendix A,Manual Configuration for Fabric Connected Devices.

This chapter contains the following sections:

SAN Device Considerations

Adding SAN Devices

Configuring Fabric Boot Devices on SPARC

SAN Device Considerations

You should be aware of the following considerations before configuring the Solaris FC and Storage Multipathing software.

Configure ports and zones according to the vendor-specific documentation for storage and switches.

With the Solaris 10 you no longer have to manually configure devices unless you enable manual device configuration.

LUN masking enables specific LUNs to be seen by specific hosts. See your vendor-specific storage documentation that describes masking.

Turn off power management on servers connected to the SAN to prevent unexpected results as one server attempts to power down a device while another attempts to gain access. See power.conf(1M) for details about power management.

Connect arrays and other storage devices to the SAN with or without multipathing capability. The Solaris FC and Storage Multipathing software is an associated application that is bundled with the product name.

Adding SAN Devices

Adding and removing SAN devices requires knowledge of the following commands:

luxadm(1M)

format(1M)

fsck(1M)

newfs(1M)

cfgadm(1M) and cfgadm_fp(1M)

Note - If you use the format command when Solaris FC and Storage Multipathing is enabled, you will see only one instance of a device identifier for each LUN. Without the Solaris FC and Storage Multipathing, you will see one identifier for each path.

The cfgadm and cfgadm_fp commands are used most frequently to configure storage devices on a SAN. Refer to the appropriate man page for detailed instructions about how to use each command.

To Add a SAN Device

1. Create the LUN(s) desired on the SAN device.

2. If necessary, apply LUN masking for HBA control on the SAN device.

3. Connect the storage device to the system.

4. If necessary, create port-based or WWN zones on the switch on the SAN device.

5. Run the fsck or newfs commands on the device, if used for file systems.

6. Mount any existing file systems available on the storage device's LUNs or disk groups.

Note - You might need to run the fsck command to repair any errors in the LUNs listed in the /etc/vfstab file.

Configuring Fabric Boot Devices on SPARC

The Solaris FC and Storage Multipathing software allows a Solaris 10 SPARC server to be booted from a fabric disk device.

Boot Considerations

Fabric boot devices can be added via the Solaris 10 interactive installation GUI or text installer just as internal boot devices have been added in the previous Solaris OS releases. Please refer to the Solaris 10 install guide for details. This feature is included on the SPARC platform only. You should consider the following points while enabling a fabric boot device.

Minimize interference to boot device by:

Ensuring the boot device is not an overly subscribed target or LUN.

Avoiding installation of applications and software on target or LUN.

Reducing physical distance between host and fabric device, as well as the number of hops.

Remove boot disk from volume manager control prior to beginning fabric boot procedure.

Ensuring the latest HBA Fcode and drivers are loaded for the install HBA's on the system.

Whether multipathing is desired on the boot device. This is handled by the stmsboot commands as described in Configuring Multipathing Software.