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

Secure Path Technology
23Secure Path v3.0C for Linux and Linux Workgroup Edition Installation and Reference Guide
Path definition
Within Secure Path, a path is defined as the collection (configuration) of physical
interconnect components including HBAs, switches, cables, RAID controllers,
and the ports on the controllers. Because the Secure Path driver component is
positioned between the HBA driver and the system SCSI disk driver, the Secure
Path driver can only distinguish physical paths when elements of the SCSI
equivalent address are different.
Some configurations include multiple switches within a fabric, with the switches
connected by one or more interswitch links. Secure Path cannot detect these paths
and cannot manage them. While these interswitch paths provide an additional
level of redundancy within the fabric, their management is handled directly within
the switch. Refer to the documentation received with your switch hardware for
more information about interswitch link routing and failover policies.
Secure Path automatically sets the path state, and reflects the status of the current
actual path. Because of path failures, the currently active path may be different
from what you expect. See Table 8 on page 62 for a list and description of path
states and attributes.