Application Notes Usage and best practices for Device Mapper Multipath with Xen enabled virtual machines for HP StorageWorks Disk Arrays (5697-7828, April 2009)

Document overview
This document provides best practices for configuring the HP StorageWorks Disk Arrays in Xen
environment.
Intended audience
This document is intended for users involved in configuring guest operating systems in Xen environment
with HP StorageWorks Disk Arrays.
Assumptions
This document assumes that the user is familiar with the following:
• Xen virtualization environment
• HP StorageWorks Disk Arrays
• Linux Device Mapper Multipath
Introduction
Xen is a para-virtualization solution for the x86 processor architecture. Xen can securely execute
multiple virtual machines on a single physical system with close-to-native performance. Linux vendors
are integrating the Xen-based virtualization in their operating system releases to enhance the
performance and maximize the hardware utilization.
In Storage Area Network, devices can have redundant paths to provide high availability. Device
Mapper is an infrastructure included in the Linux kernel that provides a generic way to create virtual
layers of block devices. It supports multipathing which provides high availability features like load
balancing, failover and failback of I/Os.
Usage and best practices for Device Mapper Multipath with Xen enabled virtual machines for HP
StorageWorks Disk Arrays 3