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
8
Note
In 7.2.x, when the VSA flag is enabled, a volume being presented should have a LUN number assignment value in the range
1-7. See the note in the earlier Limitations section for more details.
Typically, the setting of flags on one or more ports is done by the EMC administrator using EMC native tools (SMC or SYMCLI).
Using Suitable EMC Ports for Provisioning
The configuration outlined in the earlier Setting EMC Director Ports section assumes equal use of all the allowed ports. If HP-
UX is being used, then it is necessary to ensure Matrix requests for volumes with an HP-UX host mode are fulfilled using
EMC ports enabled with VSA flag. If all ports for use by Matrix/SPM support VSA and all requests will be for HP-UX host
mode, then the earlier approach will work. If some requests are for HP-UX host mode and some are for other host modes
(Windows, Linux) which cannot be fulfilled using ports with VSA enabled, then it is necessary to ensure suitable ports are
used.
This can be accomplished by manually creating the Matrix storage pool entries and choosing the SPM candidates from the
EMC array and selecting suitable ports for each of the volume’s paths (VSA enabled for HP-UX, no VSA for other host
modes). This does require the administrator know which ports are suitable for HP-UX use. If Matrix fails to find a suitable
storage pool entry, it will auto-generate an entry and fulfill the storage through SPM. The storage may or may not be using
an appropriate port in such mixed mode environments. If the wrong port is used, it can be manually adjusted by the
administrator to a suitable port (and SPM will re-present the storage using the SPM adapter for EMC Symmetrix VMAX).
This would need to be detected and corrected prior to storage use.
An alternate solution involves ensuring that Matrix will not auto-generate a storage pool entry, but rather pause
provisioning if a suitable storage pool entry is not found. This can be done by using storage tags that are available at the
Matrix infrastructure orchestration and storage pool level (but not the SPM level). A matrix service template would specify a
tag (perhaps “HPUX” or “Windows”) and it would be used when searching for suitable storage pool entries. The
corresponding tag would be on manually created storage pool entries, but not on any resources within SPM. Note that the
timing of applying the tag to the storage pool entry is critical; the storage pool entry should be created and fulfilled through
SPM without the tag (selecting the suitable storage ports). The appropriate storage candidate is selected, and then the tag
can be applied to the storage pool entry. The fact that the tag does not exist in SPM is key, because it allows Matrix to pause
for manual storage provisioning when matching storage is not found. As a result, Matrix will search for a storage pool entry
with the matching tag, using the storage if one is found, or pausing if one is not found (since there will be no SPM candidates
automatically returned with that storage tag). When Matrix pauses for manual storage provisioning, the storage pool entry
can be manually created, fulfilled through SPM without the tag, and then the tag applied to the storage pool entry before
resuming the Matrix workflow. If storage needs are known in advance, most requests can be fulfilled from the manually
created storage pool entries without delay, only pausing if there is an unanticipated request for which there is no storage
pool entry defined. These solutions assume the administrator knows which ports are suitable for HP-UX or other operating
system usage.
If there is a concern about knowing the right ports, the VSA and non-VSA ports can be partitioned across separate fabrics
(e.g., a fabric named Fabric_UX could contain all ports with VSA enabled, while another fabric Fabric_Win would contain the
ports with VSA disabled). When defining the storage pool entry, the suitable fabric can be chosen. If Matrix is auto-
generating of the storage pool entries, it will not know which fabric to choose to ensure HP-UX uses Fabric_UX. Matrix can
be configured with a prioritized list of fabrics to use when auto-generating storage pool entries. It is recommended to favor
the most common configuration (i.e., Fabric_UX if the majority of the requests will be HP-UX, or Fabric_Win if the majority of
the requests will not be for HP-UX). This allows auto-generation of storage pool entries to work well for the majority of the
cases. For the minority of requests, auto-generation of storage pool entries will not work. The technique described above
regarding storage tags at the Matrix service template and storage pool entry level (but not SPM level), can be used to ensure
auto-generated storage pool entries will not be fulfilled via SPM using the wrong fabric. The storage pool entries can be
manually created with the correct fabric chosen, and the suitable storage tag applied after SPM has returned suitable
storage candidates.
Pre-Provisioning of Volumes and Thin Pools on EMC Symmetrix VMAX
The SPM administrator needs to contact the EMC administrator for the following pre-provisioning steps.
Supported RAID Levels
As noted in the Limitations section, the SPM adapter for EMC Symmetrix VMAX storage array looks for the existing storage
pool settings for all supported RAIDs. These storage pool setting instances for a given RAID will not be created by the
adapter, hence it is required that the storage administrator create a volume of given RAID using EMC native tools (SMC,
SYMCLI). This will ensure the creation of a new storage pool setting instance for the requested RAID.