HP Matrix Operating Environment Automated Storage Provisioning: "Static"SAN volume automation via multi-initiator NPIV

Insight Orchestration – Storage Automation via NPIV

1. In this example, the LogicalServer has requested a 20GB data disk with the same properties

as the boot disk. The data disk has been defined as a “private data disk”. It is intended to

only be visible to the LogicalServer.

2. HPIO examines the data disk that was allocated in the previous phase and selects the HBA

WWN (in this case, ‘wwnr3’) that is stored in the data disk’s storage pool entry.

3. The HBA WWN is added to the server’s HBA (as indicated above).

4. The server is powered up.

5. At this point, NPIV functionality is exercised. The server indentifies itself to the SAN using

both ‘wwnr1’ and ‘wwnr3’.

6. Based on this identity, the server is granted access to both Lun1 and Lun3.

7. The server boots from Lun1 (via HBA firmware and the standard System BIOS boot device

selection process)

8. As the HBA driver is loaded by the OS, it examines the HBA NVRAM to determine if there

are any additional WWN identities stored. If there are, the HBA driver initiates the

additional NPIV login process (i.e. “FDISC”) and the OS “sees” the two targets that it is

allowed to see (i.e. both ‘Lun1’ and ‘Lun3’)

Once the process completes, the LogicalServer has been fully provisioned. The OS has been

automatically deployed to the correct boot disk and the server has full visibility to its data disk(s)

without any changes being made to the SAN. It is a process that has remained fully under the Server

administrator’s control while at the same time adhering to the storage pool boundaries established by

the SAN administrator. The SAN administrator has visibility using his own administrative tools to the

activity generated by the server and the server’s identity is fully auditable all the way back to the

LogicalServer definition and the storage pool assignments that have been made.

The next figure is an example of the Disk Manager view on Windows 2003 for a server that has

been given access to one SAN boot disk and eight private SAN data disks using NPIV as the

technique for obtaining access to the private data disks.