HP VMA SAN Gateway for VMA-series Memory Arrays Release Notes - May 2012 - Software OE version G5.1.0

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HP VMA SAN Gateway

for VMA-series Memory Arrays

Release Notes

– May 2012 – Software OE version G5.1.0

Table of contents

Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3

Features .......................................................................................................................................... 3

VMA features not initially supported by HP ............................................................................................. 4

Web Release of VMA SAN Gateway software OE version G5.1.0 and VMA Array firmware version A5.1.3 4

Documentation location ........................................................................................................................ 5

Setup & configuration of a standalone VMA SAN Gateway ..................................................................... 5

VMA SAN Gateway hardware configuration ...................................................................................... 5

VMA SAN Gateway software configuration ........................................................................................ 8

SAN connectivity with the VMA SAN Gateway ................................................................................... 9

Configuring and presenting LUNs to connected host servers ................................................................ 10

Setup & configuration of a redundant VMA SAN Gateway pair .............................................................. 10

HP supported host connectivity with VMA SAN Gateway software OE version G5.1.0 .............................. 11

Host configuration support matrix ..................................................................................................... 12

Additional platform/OS specific considerations ................................................................................. 13

Supported web browsers with vSHARE GUI .......................................................................................... 16

VMA SAN Gateway: general recommendations and limitations .............................................................. 16

Alignment of data transfer I/O block sizes ........................................................................................ 16

Data layout structure alignment on VMA Array LUNs .......................................................................... 16

ext2 filesystem is not supported ........................................................................................................ 17

Tune application to issue I/Os which are multiple of 4KB ................................................................... 17

Create multiple LUNs for parallelization of I/O for applications .......................................................... 17

LUN 0 of the VMA SAN Gateway ................................................................................................... 17

Currently only 512B sectors are supported ........................................................................................ 17

Tune OS I/O queue depth settings for optimal performance ................................................................ 17

Increased I/O traffic from server reboot might cause reported path offline ............................................ 18

VMA SAN Gateway G5.1.0 SNMP events are not integrated with HP System Insight Manager (SIM) ...... 18

VMA v-commands available with the Gateway CLI............................................................................. 18

Setting date and time ..................................................................................................................... 18

CLI commands are case sensitive ..................................................................................................... 18

Backing up VMA SAN Gateway configuration for recovery .................................................................... 18

Data backup ..................................................................................................................................... 19

Open known problems: ...................................................................................................................... 19

Open source code availability ............................................................................................................. 19

For HP Technical Support: ................................................................................................................... 20

In the United States ........................................................................................................................ 20

In other locations ........................................................................................................................... 20

Summary of content (21 pages)

PAGE 1
HP VMA SAN Gateway for VMA-series Memory Arrays Release Notes – May 2012 – Software OE version G5.1.0 Table of contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3 Features .......................................................................................................................................... 3 VMA features not initially supported by HP ..............................................
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For VMA drivers and firmware downloads:........................................................................................... 20 For more information ..........................................................................................................................
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Introduction The VMA SAN Gateway provides additional scale of connectivity and availability for connecting host servers using industry standard Fibre Channel to VMA-series Memory Arrays. The VMA SAN Gateway acts as a storage controller that provides FC connectivity. The VMA SAN Gateway requires a FC SAN switch between the gateway and the connecting servers.
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Figure 1: VMA SAN Gateway – front view VMA features not initially supported by HP HP OEMs the VMA-series memory arrays (VMA) and vSHARE OE from Violin Memory. Not all features and configurations possible with the VMA-series arrays and VMA SAN gateway have been fully tested to the expected level from HP and are considered unsupported until a later time.
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Documentation location Applicable documentation for the HP VMA SAN Gateway and VMA-series Memory Arrays can be found at www.hp.
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Figure 2: VMA SAN Gateway – back view (P/N AM465A) The FC HBA ports in the VMA SAN Gateway act as storage target ports which are connected to a FC SAN Switch to provide host initiator port connectivity. The VMA SAN Gateway is only supported with SAN Fabric attach; FC direct attach from a server FC port to a FC port on the gateway is not supported.
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Figure 3: VMA-series Memory Array – back view showing PCIe ports The following figures show how to properly insert the VMA PCIe Pass-Thru and Optional 8Gb FC dual port adapters. If you specify factory integration (option 0D1) with your order of a VMA SAN Gateway and one or two VMA-series Memory Arrays, the resulting racked and shipped configuration will appear as depicted below.
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Figure 5: Correct connections for two VMA-series Memory Arrays to one VMA SAN Gateway VMA SAN Gateway software configuration Please take time to review the HP VMA SAN Gateway Installation and User Guide to become familiar with the available commands and features. On first login to the VMA SAN Gateway, you will be prompted if you want to run the setup wizard.
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Note that the title of Chapter 3, Configuring and Managing Clusters, in the HP VMA SAN Gateway Installation and User Guide is somewhat misleading. The VMA SAN Gateway operating environment has the ability to configure gateways in a master and slave(s) relationship to provide for single point of management and monitoring of all member nodes.
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5 (if present) hba-c1 hba-c2 6 (if present) hba-d1 hba-d2 Note that only the FC HBAs installed in I/O slots #2 and #3 come with the default configuration of the VMA SAN Gateway. The FC target HBAs in I/O slots #5 and #6 are optional and will only be present if ordered as add-on components, P/N AJ764A. As mentioned previously and shown in Figures 4 and 5, it is recommended to have only two HBAs, four target ports, per connected VMA array.
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Figure 6: Supported Redundant Pair VMA SAN Gateway Configurations Redundant VMA SAN Gateway Pair with one VMA Array Redundant VMA SAN Gateway Pair with two VMA Arrays Please fully review the ‘Configuring a Redundant Pair of VMA SAN Gateways - Process Guide’ (P/N AM456-9023A) before attempting to setup a redundant gateway pair. For connection of dually connected VMA Arrays to redundant VMA SAN Gateways, you will need two VMA PCIe Cables per VMA Array to be connected; one to connect to each gateway.
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Host configuration support matrix For this initial web release, the VMA SAN Gateway with software OE version G5.1.0 and VMA Array firmware A5.1.3 has been tested and is supported with the following HP server platforms and operating systems: • Integrity BL8x0c i2 server blades running HP-UX 11i v3 fusion 1203 or newer • Integrity Superdome 2 running HP-UX 11i v3 fusion 1203 or newer • ProLiant DL980 G7 running RHEL 5.7 • ProLiant DL980 G7 running OL 5.
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Additional platform/OS specific considerations The following sections provide additional server platform and operating system specific supported configuration considerations and recommendations. HP-UX 11i v3 The Integrity Superdome 2 and BL8x0c i2 server blades require HP-UX 11i v3 update 10 (fusion 1203) or newer when connecting to the VMA SAN Gateway with VMA-series Memory Arrays. The following subsections describe additional limitations and considerations when using HP-UX 11i v3.
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I/Os are NON-4KB aligned and < 256KB 512 / number of servers* I/Os are NON-4KB aligned and > 256KB 256 / number of servers* * where servers can be a whole physical server or a partition. Linux The Linux distros RHEL 5.7 and OL 5.7 have been validated on the DL980 G7 server with the HP VMA SAN Gateway software OE version G5.1.0 and connected VMA-series Memory Arrays using firmware version A5.1.3. Additional limitations and considerations for Linux environments are shared in the following subsections.
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Windows The Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 release has been validated on the DL980 G7 server with the HP VMA SAN Gateway software OE version G5.1.0 and connected VMA-series Memory Arrays using firmware version A5.1.3. It is recommended to apply all the latest patches and MPIO QFEs before connecting your system to the VMA SAN Gateway appliance. The following Hot Fixes are highly recommended to be installed for proper connectivity and operation: • • • • • http://support.microsoft.
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For optimal I/O performance, use the following equation to determine the LUN queue depth settings for the FC HBA driver: LUN Queue Depth value = (( <# gateway FC target ports> * 1024) / <# of server FC initiator ports> / <# of LUNs>) If the resulting LUN Queue Depth value is greater than the HBA driver default (usually 30 or 32), then use driver default.
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ext2 filesystem is not supported The ext2 filesystem on Linux distros has outstanding known data integrity issues. It is highly recommended that you use an alternative filesystem such as ext3 or ext4 instead. Tune application to issue I/Os which are multiple of 4KB Most high level applications can be configured to issue certain I/O block sizes for increased performance. Ensure that configured I/O block size and if appropriate the beginning block addresses for I/Os are 4KB aligned.
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Increased I/O traffic from server reboot might cause reported path offline As with all storage, when a connected host server reboots there is additional I/O activity that can be higher than normal I/O traffic volume. This added I/O traffic from a server reboot might cause some I/Os to the SAN Gateway to time out and might be reported as a path being offline or failing. In such cases, I/Os are retried by the host server and the path is detected as back online shortly thereafter. VMA SAN Gateway G5.1.
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Next step is to copy the saved gateway configuration file to the production or maintenance server using the configuration upload command so that it can be included in regularly scheduled data backups: # configuration upload scp://[:]@/[/] When required to recover the gateway configuration file, you can retrieve the restored configuration file from the production or maintenance server by issuing the configuration fetch command: # confi
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For HP Technical Support: In the United States • • • For contact options, see the Contact HP United States webpage at: http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/contact_us.html. Call 1-800-HP-INVENT (1-800-474-6836). This service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For continuous quality improvement, calls may be recorded or monitored. If you have purchased a Care Pack (service upgrade), call 1-800-633-3600. For more information about Care Packs, refer to the HP website (http://www.hp.com/hps).
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For more information To read more about the HP VMA-series Memory Arrays and VMA SAN Gateway, go to: www.hp.com/go/vma © Copyright 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.