Solaris NPIV Support available with Veritas DMP only from InfoScale VxVM 8.0.0.1601 onwards with Solaris 11.4 SRU 48 and higher

Description

Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) 8.0.0.1601 provides support for Solaris NPIV functionality with Solaris 11.4 SRU 48 and higher. 


What is NPIV?

NPIV (N-Port ID Virtualization) is a Fibre Channel facility that enables one Fibre Channel adapter to have many N Port IDs.

Each N Port has an unique identity (port WWN and node WWN) on the SAN and can be used for zoning and LUN masking. Soft zoning, which you can use to group ports together by port WWN, is the preferred method of zoning.

Note: Not all hardware supports NPIV.

One major benefit of NPIV in LDOM Guest environments is that Virtual disks and VDSDEV backend devices do not need to be created and presented from the LDOM I/O domains. 

 

Support available with InfoScale VxVM 8.0.0.1601

Veritas now provides support for Solaris NPIV functionality with InfoScale VxVM 8.0.0.1601 (Private hotfix) onwards.
NPIV support is not available prior to InfoScale 8.0.0.x and cannot be backported to earlier versions of InfoScale.

The VxVM hotfix enables Veritas DMP to work with NPIV devices with MPxIO disabled.

The Solaris "virtinfo" command can be used to determine the LDOM role.

# virtinfo -a

Note: Solaris MPxIO is not supported with Solaris 10 or 11 LDOM configurations and so must be disabled.

 

LDOMs known as Oracle VM Server for Sparc.
 
Oracle's server virtualization and partitioning technology for SPARC provides the ability to split a single physical system into multiple, independent virtual systems (known as logical domains).
 
Figure 1.0

Thereby enabling a system to run and deploy different Operating System instances simultaneously on a single server

Steps to disable MPxIO in NPIV environments (LDOM Guests)

1.] Disable MPxIO

# stmsboot -d
 

2.] Populate the /etc/driver/drv/vbha.conf file for all iports

Sample file
 

# cat /etc/driver/drv/vhba.conf
mpxio-disable="no";
compatible="/virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/scsi@0/iport@0" mpxio-disable="yes";
compatible="/virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/scsi@1/iport@0" mpxio-disable="yes";
compatible="/virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/scsi@2/iport@0" mpxio-disable="yes";
compatible="/virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/scsi@3/iport@0" mpxio-disable="yes";
compatible="/virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/scsi@4/iport@0" mpxio-disable="yes";
compatible="/virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/scsi@5/iport@0" mpxio-disable="yes";
compatible="/virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/scsi@6/iport@0" mpxio-disable="yes";
compatible="/virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/scsi@7/iport@0" mpxio-disable="yes";

3.] vdc.conf

The /platform/sun4v/kernel/drv/vdc.conf file only needs to be populated with the Virtual disk instances presented from the I/O domain(s).

4.] reboot the LDOM Guest

# reboot
 

5.] To confirm if MPxIO is disabled, type:

# stmsboot -L
stmsboot: MPXIO disabled

The SAN attached NPIV presented devices will have the longer traditional c#t#d# names compared to Virtual disks with the shortened c#t# naming convention.
 

# echo | format
 

Check that the "scsi_vhci" keyword is not shown in the format listing.


MPxIO is not supported in Solaris LDOM (Oracle VM for SPARC) environments, I/O domains & LDOM guests
MPxIO is not supported when Veritas DMP_NATIVE_SUPPORT is enabled

Private hotfix available
 

A supported private hotfix is now available for this issue in the current version(s) of the product(s) mentioned below. Please contact Veritas Technical Support to obtain this fix. Private hotfixes do not undergo  any extensive Q&A testing.

Consequently, if you are not adversely affected by this problem and have a satisfactory temporary workaround in place, we recommend that you wait for the public release of this hotfix.

Please note that Veritas Technologies LLC reserves the right to remove any fix from the targeted release if it does not pass quality assurance tests. Veritas’ plans are subject to change and any action taken by you based on the above information or your reliance upon the above information is made at your own risk.

Solaris Sparc VxVM 8.0.0.1601

Note: Prior to installing the Private hotfix, download the latest InfoScale 8.0.0.x public patches or higher

Download Center Link:
infoscale-sol11_sparc-Patch-8.0.0.1400
https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/downloads/update.UPD364183

PATCH IDS :
  VRTSamf-8.0.0.1200 for VRTSamf
  VRTSaslapm-8.0.0.1600 for VRTSaslapm
  VRTScps-8.0.0.1200 for VRTScps
  VRTSllt-8.0.0.1200 for VRTSllt
  VRTSperl-5.34.0.1 for VRTSperl
  VRTSvcs-8.0.0.1200 for VRTSvcs
  VRTSvxfen-8.0.0.1200 for VRTSvxfen
  VRTSvxvm-8.0.0.1600 for VRTSvxvm 

Please contact Veritas Technical Support to obtain Private hot-fix "Veritas Volume Manager 8.0 Hot Fix 1601"

OPERATING SYSTEMS SUPPORTED BY THE PATCH
----------------------------------------
Solaris 11 SPARC

PACKAGES AFFECTED BY THE PATCH
------------------------------
VRTSvxvm

BASE PRODUCT VERSIONS FOR THE PATCH
-----------------------------------
   * InfoScale Enterprise 8.0
   * InfoScale Foundation 8.0
   * InfoScale Storage 8.0

SUMMARY OF INCIDENTS FIXED BY THE PATCH
---------------------------------------
Patch ID: 8.0.0.1601
* 4073314 (4072241) vxdiskadm functionality is failing due to changes in dmpdr script
* 4075623 (4075620) LDOM NPIV ENABLED (vsan) HBAs are not visible to VxVM with DMP.

* 4075623 (Tracking ID: 4075620)

SYMPTOM:
LDOM NPIV ENABLED (vsan) HBAs are not visible to VxVM with DMP with error "VxVM vxdmpadm ERROR V-5-1-10139 Invalid logical controller-name".

DESCRIPTION:
The device's physical path link is totally new to DMP. DMP can't parse this new format. Hence failed to discovery any devices.

RESOLUTION:
Code changes to support LDOM NPIV ENABLED (vsan) HBAs have been done.