HP Logical Server Management Best Practices

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Figure 17: Logical servers with private boot, shared data, multi-pathing via multiple HBA ports
Figure 17 shows a highly redundant configuration, with four separate fabrics connecting to the HBA initiator ports
and both ports of each of the two array controllers. The storage administrator has also separated the boot traffic
across multiple arrays. If supported by the server OS environments, multi-initiator NPIV can be used to map those four
HBA initiator WWNs onto two physical ports. A simpler configuration might involve the four logical HBA ports
mapped on to two physical HBA ports (and thus two fabrics), or each logical server with two HBA ports connected to
two fabrics, with port 1 used as the path for primary boot and the secondary data path to a private data volume, and
port 2 used as the path for secondary boot and the primary data path to the private data volume.
The logical server can have both the boot and data storage pool entries initially, or only the boot volume might be
included, with the data volume added after OS installation. Since the data volume has been presented to a separate
set of WWNs than the boot volume, it can be pre-allocated, avoiding a second interaction with the storage
administrator to present the data volume to the same WWNs as were used for the boot volume. Alternatively, LUN
masking can be used to hide data volume visibility during OS installation; customers using the Storage Provisioning
Manager technology preview can indicate which volumes in the storage catalog support LUN masking to be
performed by the server administrator (or the Matrix infrastructure orchestration software).
Storage pool entry creation and management
The Matrix OE interface provides convenient access to management of the logical server storage pools (and their
corresponding storage pool entries). The earlier Logical server storage pools section provided details on how to
access and view the storage pools. This section provides information on storage pool entry creation and
management. It is a best practice to use storage pool entries to speed logical server storage provisioning (by
consuming a storage pool entry which is ready to use versus initiate a new storage request), and to use the
automated matching against storage catalog volumes enabled through Matrix OE integration with HP Storage
Provisioning Manager. Figure 18 shows the Manage Storage Pool screen, with a portability group selected (thus
enabling the “Add Entry” button in the lower right corner).
HBA Port 1 WWN A
HBA Port 2 WWN B
HBA Port 3 WWN C
HBA Port 4 WWN D
Logical
Server A
vdisk 1 is a 5 GB boot volume,
Windows; presented over both ports of
each array controller, on all fabrics, to
WWN A and B of logical server A
vdisk 2 is a 40 GB data volume,
presented over both array controllers,
both fabrics, to WWNs C, D, G, H
vdisk 1
vdisk 2
Array A
C1
C2
Logical Server A uses pool entries 1 and 2
Logical Server B uses pool entries 3 and 2
Logical Server Storage Pool Entries
vdisk 1 is a 5 GB boot volume,
Windows; presented over both ports
of each array controller, on all
fabrics, to WWN E and F of logical
server B
HBA Port 1 WWN E
HBA Port 2 WWN F
HBA Port 3 WWN G
HBA Port 4 WWN H
Entry 2
40 GB data vol, Windows, HBA WWNs
C, D, G, H (ports for # of sharers)
Entry 3
5 GB boot vol, Windows, HBA WWNs E, F
Fabric A
Fabric B
Fabric C
Fabric D
Entry 1
5 GB boot vol, Windows, HBA WWNs A, B
Logical
Server B
1
2
3
4
vdisk 1
vdisk 2
Array B
C1
C2
1
2
3
4
HBA Port 1 WWN A
HBA Port 2 WWN B
HBA Port 3 WWN C
HBA Port 4 WWN D
Logical
Server A
vdisk 1 is a 5 GB boot volume,
Windows; presented over both ports of
each array controller, on all fabrics, to
WWN A and B of logical server A
vdisk 2 is a 40 GB data volume,
presented over both array controllers,
both fabrics, to WWNs C, D, G, H
vdisk 1
vdisk 2
Array A
C1
C2
vdisk 1
vdisk 2
Array A
C1
C2
vdisk 1
vdisk 2
Array A
C1
C2
Logical Server A uses pool entries 1 and 2
Logical Server B uses pool entries 3 and 2
Logical Server Storage Pool Entries
vdisk 1 is a 5 GB boot volume,
Windows; presented over both ports
of each array controller, on all
fabrics, to WWN E and F of logical
server B
HBA Port 1 WWN E
HBA Port 2 WWN F
HBA Port 3 WWN G
HBA Port 4 WWN H
Entry 2
40 GB data vol, Windows, HBA WWNs
C, D, G, H (ports for # of sharers)
Entry 3
5 GB boot vol, Windows, HBA WWNs E, F
Fabric AFabric A
Fabric BFabric B
Fabric CFabric C
Fabric DFabric D
Entry 1
5 GB boot vol, Windows, HBA WWNs A, B
Logical
Server B
1
2
3
4
vdisk 1
vdisk 2
Array B
C1
C2
vdisk 1
vdisk 2
Array B
C1
C2
vdisk 1
vdisk 2
Array B
C1
C2
1
2
3
4