HP 3PAR VMware ESX Implementation Guide
CAUTION: The procedure for changing the default SATP rules to use the round robin I/O
multipathing policy is intended to apply only to VMware hosts using HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage
LUNs. If the host shares storage from other vendors, before making any I/O policy changes, you
must consider the effect that changing the default rules will have on the storage environment as a
whole.
A change of the default PSP for a given SATP affects all storage devices (FC, FCoE, iSCSI) that
use the same default SATP rule. If a host shares multiple storage vendors in addition to an HP 3PAR
StoreServ Storage, and the other connected storage does not support active/active round robin
multipathing using the same SATP rule, such as VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA or VMW_DEFAULT_ALUA,
then its multipathing is also affected.
If the other storage uses a different SATP of its own, then SATP VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA mapping
should be changed to VMW_PSP_RR to take advantage of round-robin multipathing. You can
check the SATP-PSP relationship of a given device for ESX 4.0 using the esxcli nmp device
list or esxcli nmp device list -d <device id> command.
For example, If the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage and storage X are connected to the same host
using VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA, and if storage X does not have its own SATP, then it might cause
a problem if storage X does not support round-robin multipathing. If the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage
and storage Y are sharing the same host, and if storage Y has its own SATP VMW_SATP_Y and
HP uses VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA, then there will be no conflict, and the change can be made.
ESX/ESXi 4.1 GA - 4.1 Ux
HP 3PAR custom SATP rule for use with persona 6/Generic-legacy (Active-Active array port
presentation)
# esxcli nmp satp addrule -s "VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA" -P "VMW_PSP_RR" -O iops=1 -c "tpgs_off" -V "3PARdata" -M "VV" -e "HP
3PAR Custom iSCSI/FC/FCoE Rule"
To remove the above active-active custom SATP rule:
# esxcli nmp satp deleterule -s "VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA" -P "VMW_PSP_RR" -O iops=1 -c "tpgs_off" -V "3PARdata" -M "VV" -e
"HP 3PAR Custom iSCSI/FC/FCoE Rule"
HP 3PAR custom SATP rule for use with persona 11/VMware (ALUA compliant array port
presentation)
# esxcli nmp satp addrule -s "VMW_SATP_ALUA" -P "VMW_PSP_RR" -O iops=1 -c "tpgs_on" -V "3PARdata" -M "VV" -e "HP 3PAR
Custom iSCSI/FC/FCoE ALUA Rule"
To remove the above ALUA custom SATP rule:
# esxcli nmp satp deleterule -s "VMW_SATP_ALUA" -P "VMW_PSP_RR" -O iops=1 -c "tpgs_on" -V "3PARdata" -M "VV" -e "HP 3PAR
Custom iSCSI/FC/FCoE ALUA Rule"
ESXi 5.x
HP 3PAR custom SATP rule for use with persona 6/Generic-legacy (Active-Active array port
presentation)
# esxcli storage nmp satp rule add -s "VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA" -P "VMW_PSP_RR" -O iops=1 –c "tpgs_off" -V "3PARdata" -M "VV"
-e "HP 3PAR Custom iSCSI/FC/FCoE Rule"
Multipath Failover Considerations and I/O Load Balancing 45