HP VMA SAN Gateway for VMA-series Memory Arrays Release Notes - December 2012

Queue-Depth Settings for RHEL 5.8, 6.2, SLES 11 SP2 and OL 5.8

The HBA drivers used with Linux have default LUN level queue depth values of 30 or 32 depending

upon the HBA vendor. In many cases this default value will provide good results. However in cases

where a large number of LUNs are used with a large number of server FC initiator ports, the resulting

I/O load could cause Queue-Full conditions and I/O retries leading to non-optimal performance.

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 setting.

Windows

The Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 release has been validated on the DL980, DL580 G7

server and BL680 blade server with the HP VMA SAN Gateway software OE version G5.5.1 and

connected VMA-series Memory Arrays using firmware version A5.1.4. 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:

• Install Hotfix KB2460971 (see the Microsoft Support site).

• Install Hotfix KB2468345 (see the Microsoft Support site).

• Install Hotfix KB2522766 (see the Microsoft Support site).

• Install Hotfix KB2531907 (see the Microsoft Support site).

• Install Hotfix KB2591462 (see the Microsoft Support site).

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. If MPIO is not already enabled and active on the server, perform the

following steps to activate it:

1. Click:

START -> Administrative Tools -> Server Manager -> Features.

2. Click Add Features.

3. Check the box for MPIO and install.

4. Reboot the server to initialize MPIO and claim devices.

Verify that MPIO has correctly identified the LUNs presented by the VMA SAN Gateway with the

following steps:

1. Click:

START -> Administrative Tools -> MPIO