SPM adapter for EMC® Symmetrix® VMAX®: Matrix support for automation of EMC storage operations via the HP Storage Provisioning Manager

Technical white paper | SPM Adapter for EMC Symmetrix VMAX

Upgrade

Upgrading the HP SPM adapter for EMC Symmetrix VMAX is handled through the higher version of the Insight Management

DVD. For example, when the 7.2 or 7.3 DVD is used to upgrade an Insight Management 7.1 environment (the 7.1 version of

the Matrix OE included a technology preview of the HP SPM adapter for EMC Symmetrix VMAX).

While upgrading, the adapter will be disabled if it is already enabled, and after successful upgrade, the adapter will be

enabled with the newer version. If the adapter is already disabled while upgrading, it will remain disabled after successful

upgrade. If EMC arrays are already imported, they will remain in the SPM catalog.

Note

After successful upgrade, additional and/or newer capabilities can be applied on the existing array and volume objects in the

SPM catalog. For example, the full release version of the adapter in 7.2 contains more capabilities than the technology

preview in 7.1.

The sections below assume the HP SPM adapter for EMC Symmetrix VMAX was successfully installed and is enabled.

Configuration

As noted, SPM will be aware of the SPM adapter for EMC Symmetrix once it is installed and enabled (and thus the

administrator can import the arrays). The adapter makes various default choices, and the administrator may find it

necessary to adjust the configuration (for example, if all of the ports of the EMC array are not physically connected to the

Virtual Connect modules and intended for Matrix/SPM use, or if HP-UX is being used in the environment).

The following sections outline several items the administrator can configure in the file

EmcSymmetrixVMaxAdapter.exe.config file located at

<SPM Install Path>\plugins\storage_adapters\EMCSymmVMAX

(e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\HP\Storage Provisioning

Manager\plugins\storage_adapters\ EMCSymmVMAX).

Setting EMC SMI-S Credentials

The user will need to provide details regarding the EMC SMI-S credentials to be used during the array discovery operation.

This includes the EMC array management server (where the EMC SMI-S Provider service is running), the port number of EMC

SMI-S Provider service, the user name and the password.

The default adapter configuration includes the port number of EMC SMI-S Provider service, which is set to the default SMI-S

secure port:

With the default adapter configuration, the SPM administrator needs to provide the EMC SMI-S credentials to the SPM GUI

during the import array operation (the default port value is visible on the SPM GUI, the other fields, host, user and password,

are set to blank).

Once the administrator successfully discovers the array, the most recently used credentials will be stored into a data file

located under “state” folder of SPM install path (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\HP\Storage Provisioning

Manager). For all the subsequent import array operations, the administrator can see the previous values for host, port,

and username, and the password needs to be entered again.

Setting HTTP Timeout

Another parameter which the administrator may want to configure is the Http Timeout value. This value indicates the time

(in milliseconds) that the adapter will wait for a response from the EMC array. The default is set to 5 minutes, as below:

This value can be increased if your environment is experiencing SPM timeout errors in the SPM interface (or SPM log) when

accessing the adapter.

Setting EMC Director Ports

The SPM adapter for EMC Symmetrix VMAX storage array needs to be configured after it has been installed and enabled,

otherwise by default SPM will present and zone to all target controller (director) ports on the EMC Symmetrix VMAX array for

a given fabric and that may result in errors. There are also special considerations for use of the HP-UX host mode (see the

next section on Setting Flags on EMC Director Ports).