HP Storage Essentials V5.1 User Guide First Edition (T4283-96026, August 2006)

Provisioning Manager376
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. The device was moved from the list because it is now assigned.
LUN Provisioning Is Not Supported with Solutions Enabler 4.3
LUN mapping and LUN Masking works only when SYMAPI server version 5.0 or later is used.
SYMAPI version 4.3 does not allow LUN provisioning, even though it shows existing LUNs. It also
does not show existing LUN maskings.
“Process Has an Exclusive Lock” Message
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 Symmetrix
storage system. 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/Get Details. The Symmetrix storage system may also remain locked after a
provisioning operation has failed.
“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 if someone is performing an operation that requires a
lock, such as LUN mapping, LUN masking or Discovery Data Collection/Get Details. This also
applies even if one of the processes is being used by a third-party product, such as for LUN
masking. If so, wait until the process is complete. Only manually remove the lock if you are certain
that no other processes are occurring on the storage system. To learn how to remove the lock, refer
to the documentation for the Symmetrix storage system.