Adapters Troubleshooting and Maintenance Manual

Troubleshooting and Maintenance Manual for LightPulse Adapters Page 3
The Importance of Compatibility
Emulex works very closely with storage and system providers to ensure optimal performance of
supported systems. As part of that work, both Emulex and the storage and system providers test specific
hardware configurations and specific versions of firmware, drivers and other software for all the
components of a storage area network (SAN). This testing ensures that each supported configuration
performs as indicated and operates successfully in an enterprise installation. Compatibility matrices are
available on the Emulex Web site (www.emulex.com/interop/index.jsp) that provide information on which
configurations, firmware/software, servers, storage, adapters, switches and other components properly
function together.
It is critical to verify that all the components of the SAN, including hardware and firmware/drivers/
software for each component are supported. Storage and system providers’ web sites are the best
sources for this information.
Emulex Configuration Parameters
Each Emulex driver has a number of configuration parameters that allow the customization of the
behavior of the driver. Because these parameters can significantly change the behavior of the Emulex
product, great care must be taken in the setting or changing of the parameters. Storage and system
providers put forth great effort in determining what particular configuration parameters must be set to in
order to provide optimal storage area SAN performance.
How Emulex Device Driver Configuration Parameters Work
Emulex configuration parameters are stored in the server into which the adapter is installed. The device
driver acts upon these parameters. Emulex configuration parameters are NOT stored in the adapter
flash memory. Unlike other SCSI and Fibre Channel (FC) adapters, Emulex does not store any
configuration information such as timers, FC topology or link speed in the adapter flash. When an
Emulex adapter is installed into a server, there is no separate configuration step required for the adapter.
Proper driver configuration is generally all that is required. The exception to this is if you boot from SAN.
In this case, you must use the adapter BIOS utility to configure the boot device. The adapter must be
told which FC device contains the boot volume, and that information is stored in the flash. These settings
are only in effect at boot time. Once the operating system (OS) loads the device driver, most settings of
the driver are used and the adapter BIOS no longer functions.
Emulex Utility Applications
Emulex provides a variety of utility applications that include diagnostic capabilities. Documentation is
available at http://www.emulex.com/support/. These utilities are:
• The HBAnyware utility
• The stand-alone utilities
• DOSLpCfg
• WinLpCfg
• LinLpCfg
Note: For best results, never change the driver configuration parameters from their
default values or the values specified by the storage and systems providers.
Doing so can alter performance of the SAN and place the SAN in a
configuration that is not supported, or cause it to operate improperly.