EMC PowerPath

Module 4 EMC PowerPath

Module Objectives
Upon completion of this module, you will be able to : Describe the features and functionality offered by PowerPath Explain that PowerPath is host based software that performs path failover Explain that PowerPath provides load balancing Describe the failover process should an HBA, cable or SP fail Explain the benefits that PowerPath provides to improve performance Describe the CLARiiON configurations supported by PowerPath and Access Logix in different environments

Curriculum PowerPath
Failover terminology PowerPath, PowerPath Base and Utility Kit PowerPath Example PowerPath configurations Managing PowerPath

Path Failover - Related Terms

Trespass - temporary re-assignment of LUNs from the owning SP to the peer SP Multi-Path - more than one path to an SP from one HBA Multi-Path Failover - rerouting I/O from the host through an alternate path to the same SP Load Balancing - spreading workload across multiple resources
Static Load Balancing - achieved by LUN assignment to SPs Dynamic Load Balancing
Choice of path determined by algorithm

Path set - the set of all paths to a LUN from all HBAs

Path Failover Defined

Multi-Path Failover reroutes I/O through alternate paths to the same SP If the LUN is still inaccessible, a LUN trespass occurs Failover occurs on a per path basis with PowerPath Fail Over mode depends upon failed component
If there is a failure of an HBA or a cable connecting the HBA to an SP or Switch, an alternate path would be used (if available) If there is a failure of a Storage Processor, all LUNs assigned to that SP will failover

PowerPath
Host Based Software
Specific version for each supported OS 3.x and above supports CLARiiON systems

Currently Available for various platforms:

Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Solaris,

Provides Path Failover

Allows servers and applications to access LUNs in the event of a path failure Requires at least one path from each HBA to each SP, and paths to both SPs in a storage system

Provides configurable load balancing Allows LUN prioritization

PowerPath Architecture
Base driver
The PowerPath foundation

Extensions
MP Symmetrix multipath MPC CLARiiON multipath CG Symmetrix Consistency Group support

Autoprobe and Auto Restore

Probe inactive paths every 5 minutes or so Test 1 LUN per HBA-SP path If that probe fails, test all LUNs; if all fail, trespass Automatically restore repaired connections
May be a lengthy process

Manual restore is supported

PowerPath Load Balancing

ClarOpt (default): I/O requests are balanced across multiple paths based on composition of reads, writes, plus user assignable priority LeastIOs: I/O requests are assigned to the path with the fewest number of requests in the queue LeastBlocks: I/O requests are assigned to the path with the fewest total blocks in the queue RoundRobin: I/O requests are distributed to each available path in turn

Switch Zoning - 2 Methods

HBA0 HBA1

SPA0

SPA3

SPB0

SPB3

Utility Kit PowerPath

HOST HBA

SAN

0 SPA

0 SPB

1 LUN

Example 1 - No Cross-zoning
HOST HBA1 HBA2

SAN

0 SPA

0 SPB

1 LUN

Example 2 - Multipath with Crosszoning

HOST HBA HBA

SAN

0 SPA

0 SPB

1 LUN

Example 3 - Multipath with Crosszoning

HOST HBA HBA

SAN

0 SPA

0 SPB

1 LUN

Example 4 - Multipath Cross-zoning

HOST HBA HBA

SAN

1 SPA

1 SPB

3 LUN

Path Failover CLARiiON Configuration

A CLARiiON storage system must be configured for PowerPath with 2 parameters These parameters can be set for the entire storage system, or on a per host basis, with CLI or a Wizard:
ArrayCommPath FailoverMode

The arraycommpath option affects behavior of the storage system when no LUN 0 is configured for a host The failovermode option affects behavior required by different path management software packages on the host

CLARiiON/PowerPath Configuration Checking

Incorrect configuration may lead to unavailable data Every new install requires a configuration check Information is obtained from
navicli getall CAP2 (CLARiiON Array Properties) EMCGrab (Unix) or EMCReports (Windows) Switch information commands nst (on Unix systems) to verify HA configuration

Full instructions are found in the CLARiiON Procedure Generator

Download from PowerLink

PowerPath Administration
GUI on Windows platform
PowerPath Administrator

Command line on all platforms

powermt emcpreg (not on Windows)

PowerPath Administrator - Main

SP Port Display

PowerPath Adapter Display

Path Mode Options

Disk Mode Options

Disk Policy Options

Disk Priority Options

Disk Properties - Details

Disk Properties Mode and Policy

Adapter Mode Options

Adapter Properties - Details

SP Port Properties

powermt - Command Line Management

PowerPath Status Indication (Windows)

Path Failover in a 4 HBA Environment

Load Balancing when an HBA Fails

Load Balancing with Maximum Path Count

Load Balancing across Surviving Paths

Path Failover - Cluster Support

Multi-path I/O in a clustering environment Supported clusters
See the EMC Support Matrix for latest information

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