HP XC System Software Release Notes for Version 2.1

Cluster Platform 6000 Notes

This chapter contains information that applies only to CP6000 systems.

11.1 Excessive Boot Time with Unzoned SAN Volume

Connected Through an A6824A HBA

When a SAN volume is connected to an HP Integrity rx2600 system that has an

A6824A (dual-channel fibre) host bus adapter (HBA) installed, excessive boot times

(in the 2-4 hour range) have been observed. The solution to this problem is to

implement zoning on the SAN switch.

This does not actually represent a problem, but rather a misconfiguration of the

SAN; it is likely that an administrator experienced with SAN volumes will have

already implemented zoning on the SAN switch. This note is targeted primarily

to administrators who are configuring a SAN volume on an HP Integrity rx2600

for the first time.

For detailed information on implementing zoning, refer to the latest version of the

user guide for HP Storage Works Zoning, which is located at the following URL

(search for the string zoning guide in the Search box on this page):

http://www.hp.com/country/us/eng/prodserv/storage.html

At a minimum, the following items must be included in the pertinent zone:

• The World Wide Name (WWN) of the adapter nodes and ports on the A6828A

HBA, which is located in the /proc/scsi/qla2300/

# file, where # represents

a numeric file name (these vary between systems).

• The numbers of the ports (expressed as blade#,port#) on the SAN switch

that are connected to the HBA.

• The WWN of the controllers for the physical storage on the SAN.

After zoning is successfully implemented, the boot time is reduced to a few minutes.

This problem was not observed with the FCA2214 HBA, but this adapter is

intended for 32-bit environments and is not supported for the HP Integrity rx2600

(although it does seem to work).

11.2 Installing to and Booting from a SAN Volume

You can install the XC System Software to a SAN volume and use it as the boot

device for an HP Integrity rx2600 head node. The HP Integrity rx2600 must be

connected to the SAN volume through an A6826A HBA, and certain procedures

must be followed in order to ensure successful booting.

1. Perform the installation using only one of the two channels on the HBA

connected to the SAN switch. This means that either the second port on

the HBA should be physically disconnected from the SAN switch during

installation, or the SAN volume should be presented (using the GUI on the

SAN Appliance) to only one of the two ports on the HBA. If each of the

ports are both physically and virtually connected, the system will be unable

to remount the root file system in read/write mode during Linux boot; the

remount attempt will fail with the following message:

Cluster Platform 6000 Notes 11-1