Neil Youshak FTSS South Florida (954) 346-856

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AIX Best Practices for SAN
Neil Youshak FTSS South Florida [phone]
neil.youshak_at_us.ibm.com  
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Introduction
Intelligent discussion of Storage for AIX No
sales pitch Not another one sided skew of a
vendor selling storage Not a marketing scheme

• Neil Youshak
• FTSS South Florida
• [phone] neil.youshak_at_us.ibm.com  

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Topics

• Multipath Drivers
• Zoning
• Storage Options Fiber Channel, iSCSI or NAS
• The Disk Array
• Tips

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MultiPath Drivers

• Redundancy High Availability
• IBM RDAC SDD
• HP Secure Path
• EMC PowerPath
• MPIO

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HBA High Level Installation Steps

• Install the HBA and correct drivers ?Firmware
  upgrade maybe needed
• Run cfgmgr to install the HBA
• Ensure the HBA is available by running 'lsdev -C
  grep fcs
• lscfg vl fcs0 ROS ? displays firmware level of
  HBA
• Find the WWN of the HBA with 'lscfg -vl fcs0'.
• lscfg vpl fsc0 grep Net ? display WWN
• Ensure the child fscsi devices have been created
  with 'lscfg grep fscsi'
• lsdev C grep fcs ? list the adpaters in the
  host
• Install the FC SCSI array drivers
• devices.fcp.disk.array.rte
• devices.fcp.disk.array.diag
• devices.fcp.disk.rte
• devices.scsi.scarray.rte
• Run cfgmgr -v to detect the disk arrays FLOGI
• lslpp ah devices.fcp.disk.array.rte ? verify
  your multipath driver
• Display your SAN disks lsdev Ccdisk
• Possible Problems
• If you see several other FC SCSI Disk Drive
  lines, then the array drivers are not installed
  correctly

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MultiPath Best Practice

• Rule 1
• Always check the vendor site
• Rule 2
• Read follow recommendations
• Critical setting for HBA adapters..this is only
  if two or more adapters are present. (Thanks
  Inshan)
• Use this to change default of HBA on VIO servers.
• padmin chdev -dev fscsi0 -attr
  fc_err_recovfast_fail dyntrkyes -perm
• For Dedicated or standalone servers
• root chdev -l fscsi0 -a fc_err_recovfast_fail
  -P
• chdev -l -a dyntrkyes -P

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HBA Tools

• Use them

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Zoning

• Zoning partitioning the Fibre
• Channel fabric into smaller pieces
• to restrict OS interference,
• add security, and simplify
• management.
• There are 2 methods of zoning
• Soft zoning - Hard zoning
• Zoning is not the same as LUN
• masking, but serves the same goal.
• LUN masking is usually performed
• on disk array controllers.
• VSANs ? multiple logical SANs over a common
  physical infrastructure. Each port can be a
  member of multiple zones, but only one VSAN.
• Different than Zoning

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How to Zone Correctly

• Soft Zoning
• Use Alias not WWN choose Port WWN
• Have a naming convention
• hostname_fcs0

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How to Zone Correctly

• Zone Set or Quick Loop
• Single Initiator zoning
• Zone Naming convention
• hostname_zone

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How to Zone Correctly

• Create your Zone Set/Configuration
• Add Zones
• Zone Config Naming convention
• company_date
• One Active Zone Set
• Backup the switch configuration
• Backup the zone configuration

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Zoning Best Practices

• Dual Fabric
• Soft Zoning
• Single Initiator zoning
• Naming Conventions
• Core Edge Fabric Design
• Configuration Backups
• Maintenance Window
• Firmware Upgrades

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Fibre Channel iSCSI NAS

• Differences
• Fiber Channel
• Wide vendor acceptance More expensive
• iSCSI
• Less expensive Shorter learning
  curve/implementation cycle
• When to use each

ISCSI Reference Links http//publib.boulder.ibm.c
om/infocenter/systems/index.jsp?topic/iphcd/fc571
4ussmitc.htm http//publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocen
ter/systems/index.jsp?topic/com.ibm.aix.baseadmn/
doc/baseadmndita/config_iscsi_adapter_aix.htm
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iSCSI or Fibre Channel

• Fiber Channel
• Wide vendor acceptance
• More expensive
• Complex installs and maintenance
• iSCSI
• Less expensive
• Shorter learning curve/implementation cycle
• New technology/lack of legacy vendor support

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Disk Array

• IBM DS8000, DS6000, DS5000, DS4000, DS3000,
  NSeries, SVC
• HP XP, EVA, MSA
• EMC Symmetrix, Clariion, Celerra
• HDS USP, AMS, SMS, WMS, BlueArc
• XYZ enterprise, SMB, NAS
• Disk is disk. ??????

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Are All Disk Arrays Created Equal?

• Disk
• FC SATA SAS
• Speed
• Spindle Count
• Segment Size - Stripe Size
• Read your vendors custom options
• RAID
• RAID5 or RAID10 . RAID50, RAID1

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Tips

• Always read the documentation
• Use vendor resources
• Disk Magic - Capacity Magic
• Network groups for support
• Try to have a lab/test system or play time
• Continuing education
• Zoning is where most problems occur
• Always check interop matrix
• Keep firmware current
• Baseline your SAN performance