HP Storage Essentials SRM 6.0 User Guide for Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition SRM Software (July 2008)

HP Storage Essentials SRM 6.0 User Guide 565
About Provisioning on EMC Symmetrix Storage Systems
EMC ships its Symmetrix storage system with volumes already created. When the software first
discovers an EMC Symmetrix storage system, it assumes the devices on the Symmetrix storage
system are volumes.
This software refers to the term “device” to define a piece of hardware in the storage network. EMC
uses the term “device” to refer to a volume on one of its storage systems. In this section, the term
“device” is used in the context of EMC storage systems.
When you use the software's “create a volume” feature, you are assigning the already created
volume. If necessary the software will create a meta device, which is a device that is a
concatenation of several devices.
The software does not delete the volumes created by EMC. When you use the software's “delete a
volume” feature, the software marks the volume as hidden in its repository. These “hidden volumes”
are stored in the “Free Device” list. If you use a device in the “Free Device” list when you create a
volume, that device is removed from the “Free Device” list.
Process Has an Exclusive Lock Message
The Symmetrix storage system can become locked for many reasons. For example, the storage
system becomes locked when it performs LUN mapping, LUN masking or Discovery Data Collection.
The Symmetrix storage system may also remain locked after a provisioning operation has failed. You
will receive a message resembling the one shown below if a process has already locked the EMC
Symmetrix storage system and you attempt a process that requires a lock on the storage system.
SYMAPI routine SymDevMaskSessionStart failed with error code 188:
The operation failed because another process has an exclusive lock on
the local Symmetrix
After the management server has detected the lock on the Symmetrix storage system, it tries to
access the storage system for 15 minutes and logs the errors.
If you receive the error message, determine whether someone is performing an operation that
requires a lock, such as LUN mapping, LUN masking, or Discovery Data Collection. This applies
even if one of the processes is being used by a third-party product, such as for LUN masking. If this
is the case, wait until the process is complete. Remove the lock manually only if you are certain that
no other processes are happening on the storage system. To learn how to remove the lock, refer to
the documentation for the Symmetrix storage system.
If a provisioning failure causes the Symmetrix storage system to remain locked, you are alerted to
this situation in Event Manager and on the Properties tab. You may receive a message similar to the
following:
Unable to end device masking session. Symmetrix '000001835005700' may be
locked.
Some EMC Volumes, Their LUNs and LUN Maskings Are Hidden
EMC volumes, their LUNs, and LUN maskings for the volumes that play a special role (such as
holding device masking information, attached BCVs, and gate-keeper devices) are hidden. On the
host side, the software shows LUN maskings for these volumes. So you may see a LUN masking, but
not its volume, residing on the EMC storage system.