Configuring Multipathing on a Port Basis

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You can disable or enable multipathing on a specific FC host bus adapter (HBA) controller ports.

Before you start configuring a port with multipathing feature, consider the following factors:

FC global and per-port multipath setting is specified in the /kernel/drv/fp.conf file.

Per-port multipath settings have priority over the global settings. When global multipathing is enabled and if a specific port is disabled for multipathing, that port will not be available in the multipathing configuration. Conversely, when global multipathing is disabled and if a specific port enabled for multipathing, that port is listed in the appropriate driver.conf file.
If a device has more than one path to the host, all paths to the device must either be enabled or disabled for I/O multipathing.
Configuring multipathing on a port enables the Oracle Solaris I/O multipathing feature to co-exist with other third-party multipathing solutions. However, devices and paths must not be shared between the Oracle Solaris I/O multipathing software and other third-party multipathing solutions.

How to Configure Multipathing on a Port

This procedure describes how to configure multipathing on a port. Depending on how many ports you want the multipathing feature to control; you can disable or enable multipathing globally or for a specific port.

Become an administrator.
For more information, see Using Your Assigned Administrative Rights in Securing Users and Processes in Oracle Solaris 11.3.

Determine the HBA controller ports that you want the multipathing feature to control.

To list the available devices, perform an ls –l command on the /dev/cfg directory. For example:

# ls -l
total 16
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root          60 Feb 26 15:33 c1 -> ../../devices/pci@400/pci@2/pci@0/pci@4/scsi@0/iport@40:scsi
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root          60 Feb 26 15:33 c3 -> ../../devices/pci@400/pci@1/pci@0/pci@0/SUNW,qlc@0/fp@0,0:fc
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root          62 Feb 26 15:33 c4 -> ../../devices/pci@400/pci@1/pci@0/pci@0/SUNW,qlc@0,1/fp@0,0:fc
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root          59 Feb 26 15:33 c5 -> ../../devices/pci@400/pci@1/pci@0/pci@4/scsi@0/iport@f:scsi
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root          59 Feb 26 15:33 c6 -> ../../devices/pci@400/pci@2/pci@0/pci@4/scsi@0/iport@f:scsi
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root          62 Feb 26 15:33 c7 -> ../../devices/pci@400/pci@2/pci@0/pci@a/SUNW,emlxs@0/fp@0,0:fc
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root          64 Feb 26 15:33 c8 -> ../../devices/pci@400/pci@2/pci@0/pci@a/SUNW,emlxs@0,1/fp@0,0:fc
drwxr-xr-x   5 root     root           5 Feb 26 15:33 usb0
drwxr-xr-x   4 root     root           4 Feb 26 15:33 usb1
drwxr-xr-x  18 root     root          18 Feb 26 15:33 usb2

Note - In the example, controllers c5 and c6 are ports A and B on a dual-port FC HBA. Controllers c1 and c3 are single port SAS HBA ports. Controller c2 is the internal SAS controller.

Determine the port or ports for which you want to explicitly enable or disable multipathing.

Copy the /kernel/drv/fp.conf file to the /etc/driver/drv/fp.conf file.
Enable or disable multipathing on a specific FC HBA port according to your requirement.
- To enable an FC HBA port, add the following line to the /etc/driver/drv/fp.conf file:
```
name="fp" parent="parent-name" port=port-number mpxio-disable="no";
```
  For example, the following entries disable multipathing on all FC HBA controller ports except for the two ports:
```
mpxio-disable="yes";
name="fp" parent="/pci@6,2000/SUNW,qlc@2" port=0 mpxio-disable="no";
name="fp" parent="/pci@13,2000/pci@2/SUNW,qlc@5" port=0 mpxio-disable="no";
```
- To disable an FC HBA port, add the following line to the /etc/driver/drv/fp.conf file:
```
name="fp" parent="parent-name" port=port-number mpxio-disable="yes";
```
  For example:
```
name="fp" parent="/pci@6,2000/SUNW,qlc@2" port=0 mpxio-disable="yes";
```
Start the reboot and configuration process.
```
# stmsboot -u
```
You are prompted to reboot. During the reboot, the /etc/vfstab file and the dump configuration are updated to reflect the device name changes and the zpools are imported from the new device names.
If necessary, configure your applications to use new device names.