Operating Environment Software Owner manual

Understanding HP XP/XP P9000 disk array presentation, mapping, and
masking
In the HP XP/XP P9000 disk array, volumes are presented through FC host ports, which SPM calls
target ports, and host groups. A host group is a collection of initiator endpoints. Each initiator
endpoint is a represented as a WWN. A host group is used to explicitly define a mapping and
masking relationship between a specific volume and initiators included in the host group.
Hierarchically, host groups are defined under array target ports. This implies that an initiator can
exist in multiple host groups, but under different array target ports. Also, host group names are
case sensitive, i.e. Host1 and host1 are treated as two different host groups by HP XP/XP P9000
and SPM.
These host groups are called “host entries” in SPM, which tracks them as collections of initiator
endpoints. When an HP XP/XP P9000 array is imported into SPM, its host group details are
discovered and equivalent host entries are created in SPM's catalog. During storage service
provisioning automation, presentation update requests may reference hosts that map to the HP
XP/XP P9000 host WWNs or new collections of initiator endpoints. SPM uses the host group's
initiator endpoint addresses to relate the hosts to existing WWNs if possible. SPM aggregates host
groups under different array target ports and displays as one host entry. However, during
mapping/masking the volume to/from an initiator, host groups for each array target port specified
are considered.
The presentation update may potentially cause an un-present operation on the volume to clear its
current presentation setting (i.e. to mask the old presentation). Then, if necessary, host groups
(WWNs) are created on the array on all the specified target ports. Finally, the provider updates
the results of the presentation operation to map the volume to the appropriate host group. The HP
XP/XP P9000 allows more than one initiator endpoints be grouped in a host group.
SPM does not populate the “nickname” attribute of a host WWN in a host group.
Working with HP XP/XP P9000 disk array host modes
HP XP/XP P9000 disk arrays support a variety of host modes that depend on the operating system.
SPM supports creation of the following host modes for HP XP/XP P9000 disk array.
SPM host modeP9000/XP host mode
Windows / Windows 2008 /Windows 2012
1
Windows
LinuxStandard
HPUXHPUX
VMwareVMware
OpenVMSOpenVMS
1
P9500 firmware version V05 supports a Windows 2012 host mode that enables specific functionality for ThP (thin
provisioning). SPM does not support the Windows 2012 host mode for the P9500. This means that Windows 2012
hosts cannot take advantage of automated space reclamation or optimized ODX accesses, but this does not affect host
access to storage volumes in any way.
Creating hosts on an HP XP/XP P9000 disk array
When SPM attempts to present a volume to an initiator, it first probes the array to detect whether
this initiator is known to the array. If it is not, a new host group is created for that initiator, under
required (multiple) target ports. When hosts are created by Matrix, the host name will be prefixed
with the string “LSM_”. If no host name is specified in the service requirements or if there is a
naming conflict with existing host groups, the name will be of the form “SPM_<time in milliseconds>”
or “SPM_<unique identifier>. See table below for more detailed information.
Understanding HP XP/XP P9000 disk array presentation, mapping, and masking 85