HP StorageWorks Secure Path V3.0C for Linux and Linux Workgroup Edition Installation and Reference Guide (AA-RU7VD-TE, February 2004)

Fibre Channel Device Software
115Secure Path v3.0C for Linux and Linux Workgroup Edition Installation and Reference Guide
Persistence defined
Persistence is the binding of a device mnemonic to a physical device regardless of
the device’s location on the bus.
Persistence is a very important concept, especially in Fibre Channel topologies.
In a Fibre Channel fabric, devices come and go much the same way network
attached devices, such as PCs, connect to and disconnect from a LAN. Normally,
you will install a disk, create a filesystem on it, and mount it.
The next time you boot the system, the expectation is that your disk device
mnemonics won't change because some neighboring device was added, removed,
or set offline.
The sps program maintains persistence through the use of symbolic links. The
sps program is meant to be run at boot time just after the Secure Path modules
are loaded. To that end, the Secure Path installation process adds execution of sps
to one of the system boot files. You never need to execute sps manually.