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

ManualsBrandsHP ManualsStorageHP VMA3210 10TB SLC Memory Array

HP VMA SAN Gateway

for VMA-series Memory Arrays

Release Notes – August 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 ............................................................................................................................. 17

VMA SAN Gateway: general recommendations and limitations ....................................................................................... 17

Alignment of data transfer I/O block sizes........................................................................................................................... 17

Data layout structure alignment on VMA Array LUNs ..................................................................................................... 17

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 .................................................................................. 18

LUN 0 of the VMA SAN Gateway ............................................................................................................................................. 18

Currently only 512B sectors are supported.......................................................................................................................... 18

Tune OS I/O queue depth settings for optimal performance ....................................................................................... 18

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) ........... 19

VMA v-commands available with the Gateway CLI ........................................................................................................... 19

Setting date and time .................................................................................................................................................................. 19

CLI commands are case sensitive ............................................................................................................................................ 19

Backing up VMA SAN Gateway configuration for recovery ................................................................................................ 19

Data backup ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 20

Open known problems: .................................................................................................................................................................... 20

Open source code availability ........................................................................................................................................................ 20

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

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

Summary of content (22 pages)

PAGE 1
HP VMA SAN Gateway for VMA-series Memory Arrays Release Notes – August 2012 – Software OE version G5.1.0 Table of contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 Features ................................................................................................................................................................................
PAGE 2
In other locations .......................................................................................................................................................................... 21 For VMA drivers and firmware downloads: ............................................................................................................................... 21 For more information ...............................................................................................................................
PAGE 3
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.
PAGE 4
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.
PAGE 5
Documentation location Applicable documentation for the HP VMA SAN Gateway and VMA-series Memory Arrays can be found at www.hp.
PAGE 6
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.
PAGE 7
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.
PAGE 8
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.
PAGE 9
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.
PAGE 10
3 hba-b1 hba-b2 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.
PAGE 11
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.
PAGE 12
you are using a configuration not listed below as a supported configuration, you may be asked to reconfigure your environment to comply with a supported configuration for HP support entitlement. 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.
PAGE 13
Server 2008 R2 & Windows 2008 R2 SP1 2012.05.01 AJ763A, AJ764A, AK344A & AJ763A 9.1.9.26 for AJ764A & C-Series H-Series AK344A ** It is highly recommend that all FC HBAs used in a single DL980 G7 server be of same original vendor, either all Q-Logic or all Emulex, to avoid software driver co-existence issues.
PAGE 14
Table 3. HP-UX 11i v3 TPCC queue depth values. IF THEN TPCC Setting is I/Os are 4KB aligned and < 256KB 1024 / number of servers* I/Os are 4KB aligned and > 256KB 512 / number of servers* 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, 6.2, SLES 11 SP1 and OL 5.
PAGE 15
# use the corresponding getuid_callout for your OS # RHEL5/OL5 getuid_callout "/sbin/scsi_id -p 0x80 -g -u -s /block/%n" # RHEL6/OL6 getuid_callout "/sbin/scsi_id --whitelisted --replacewhitespace --page=0x80 --device=/dev/%n" # SLES11 getuid_callout "/lib/udev/scsi_id --page=0x83 --whitelisted --replace-whitespace --device=/dev/%n" getuid_callout -page=0x80 --device=/dev/%n" "/sbin/scsi_id --whitelisted --replace-whitespace - # uncomment this for oracle RAC or other HA.
PAGE 16
• • • • http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2511962 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2522766 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2549567 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2661794 Some additional limitations and considerations for Windows Server 2008 R2 and R2 SP1 environments are presented in the following subsections. Recommended MPIO Changes: It is recommended to ensure that MPIO is enabled and correctly configuring MPIO for LUNs presented by the VMA SAN Gateway.
PAGE 17
Supported web browsers with vSHARE GUI To launch the vSHARE web-based GUI, enter the VMA SAN Gateway IP address in the web address space of the web browser. The vSHARE GUI requires the Java plug-in to be added and enabled in the web browser in order to function correctly. Supported web browsers for use with the vSHARE web-based GUI are: • Internet Explorer (IE) version 8 or newer.
PAGE 18
Create multiple LUNs for parallelization of I/O for applications Creating multiple LUNs on the connected VMA arrays might allow applications to launch multiple threads for greater I/O parallelism and performance. It is currently recommended to configure no more than 32 LUNs per connected VMA Array with this G5.1.0 release of the VMA SAN Gateway software OE.
PAGE 19
VMA SAN Gateway G5.1.0 SNMP events are not integrated with HP System Insight Manager (SIM) Due to current compatibility issues with SNMP events from the VMA SAN Gateway G5.1.0, SNMP integration and events are not supported with HP System Insight Manager (SIM) at this time.
PAGE 20
Data backup As with any data storage device, array or system, data stored should always be protected with a regular data backup schedule that is appropriate for the criticalness of the data stored. You can use the HP Data Protector software or your chosen backup software utility to back up your data on the VMA as done with other standard rotational disk-based storage systems.
PAGE 21
In other locations • For contact options, see the Contact HP worldwide (in English) webpage at: http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/wwcontact.html. For VMA drivers and firmware downloads: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Go to http://www.hp.com/support/downloads. In the Search field on the right-hand side of the page, enter the exact product name. Select your product, such as VMA3210. Select your operating system or Cross operating system (BIOS, Firmware, Diagnostics, etc.). This takes you to the product download page.
PAGE 22
For more information To read more about the HP VMA-series Memory Arrays and VMA SAN Gateway, go to: www.hp.com/go/vma Share with colleagues © Copyright 2012 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.