6.0.1

8 Click OK to save your seings and exit the dialog box.
Disable Storage Paths
You can temporarily disable paths for maintenance or other reasons.
You disable a path using the Paths panel. You have several ways to access the Paths panel, from a datastore,
a storage device, or an adapter view. This task explains how to disable a path using a storage device view.
Procedure
1 Browse to the host in the vSphere Web Client navigator.
2 Click the Manage tab, and click Storage.
3 Click Storage Devices.
4 Select the storage device whose paths you want to disable and click the Paths tab.
5 Select the path to disable and click Disable.
Managing Storage Paths and Multipathing Plug-Ins
Use the esxcli commands to manage the PSA multipathing plug-ins and storage paths assigned to them.
You can display all multipathing plug-ins available on your host. You can list any third-party MPPs, as well
as your host's NMP and SATPs and review the paths they claim. You can also dene new paths and specify
which multipathing plug-in should claim the paths.
For more information about commands available to manage PSA, see the Geing Started with vSphere
Command-Line Interfaces.
Multipathing Considerations
Specic considerations apply when you manage storage multipathing plug-ins and claim rules.
The following considerations help you with multipathing:
n
If no SATP is assigned to the device by the claim rules, the default SATP for iSCSI or FC devices is
VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA. The default PSP is VMW_PSP_FIXED.
n
When the system searches the SATP rules to locate a SATP for a given device, it searches the driver
rules rst. If there is no match, the vendor/model rules are searched, and nally the transport rules are
searched. If no match occurs, NMP selects a default SATP for the device.
n
If VMW_SATP_ALUA is assigned to a specic storage device, but the device is not ALUA-aware, no
claim rule match occurs for this device. The device is claimed by the default SATP based on the device's
transport type.
n
The default PSP for all devices claimed by VMW_SATP_ALUA is VMW_PSP_MRU. The
VMW_PSP_MRU selects an active/optimized path as reported by the VMW_SATP_ALUA, or an
active/unoptimized path if there is no active/optimized path. This path is used until a beer path is
available (MRU). For example, if the VMW_PSP_MRU is currently using an active/unoptimized path
and an active/optimized path becomes available, the VMW_PSP_MRU will switch the current path to
the active/optimized one.
n
While VMW_PSP_MRU is typically selected for ALUA arrays by default, certain ALUA storage arrays
need to use VMW_PSP_FIXED. To check whether your storage array requires VMW_PSP_FIXED, see
the VMware Compatibility Guide or contact your storage vendor. When using VMW_PSP_FIXED with
ALUA arrays, unless you explicitly specify a preferred path, the ESXi host selects the most optimal
working path and designates it as the default preferred path. If the host selected path becomes
unavailable, the host selects an alternative available path. However, if you explicitly designate the
preferred path, it will remain preferred no maer what its status is.
vSphere Storage
194 VMware, Inc.