Native MPIO under SuSE SLES 9/10 with Device Mapper Multipath

Issue

June 2007

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Device Mapper Multipath (DM-MP) allows nodes to route I/O over multiple paths (MPIO) to a storage controller. When there are multiple paths to a storage device, each path appears as a separate device. DM-MP creates a new device on top of those devices. This device is listed with a unique ID or an alias name. Minimum software requirements: Linux Kernel: udev: Multipath tools: SLES9 SP3 (2.6.5-7.244) (default under SLES9 SP3) udev-021-36.56 (default under SLES9 SP3) multipath-tools-0.4.5-0.11 (no additional packages needed)

Device Mapper Multipath consists of the following components: dm-multipath multipath multipathd kernel module tool for configuring and showing of mp-groups daemon that controls mp-connections

The device mapper multipath-tools are not part of a standard SLES9 installation. You have to install the multipath-tools package separately via yast2. Before configuring multipath groups, you have to set up your HBA drivers and parameters. Emulex HBAs: Driver: lpfc, version: 8.0.16.17 (SLES 9), 8.1.6 (SLES 10) No special parameters necessary but you have to use the options for DDM Multipath. QLogic HBAs: Driver: qla2300, version: 8.01.02 (SLES 9), 8.01.04-k (SLES 10) Parameters in /etc/modprobe.conf.local: options qla2300 ql2xfailover=0 qlport_down_retry=1 ql2xretrycount=5 (with SLES 10 options ql2xfailover and ql2xretrycount are dropped) It is necessary to check if the related HBA driver is loaded automatically. The parameter INITRD_MODILES in /etc/sysconfig/kernel must contain lpfc or qla2300. For example: INITRD_MODULES=mptspi reiserfs lpfc. Then call mkinitrd.

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Configuration of Device Mapper Multipath: 1. Check if the required multipath-tools version is installed: # rpm q multipath-tools Otherwise install multipath-tools rpm package via yast2. 2. Check if the required udev version is installed: # rpm q udev 3. Novell commends to deactivate subfs auto-mount if available. Change in /etc/sysconfig/hotplug to HOTPLUG_USE_SUBFS=no. 4. For a faster boot-phase in bigger multipath configurations do the following modification in /etc/sysconfig/boot: DISABLE_BLKID=yes 5. Check with lsmod whether the dm-multipath module is loaded. If it is not loaded call: # modprobe dm_multipath 6. Create /etc/multipath.conf: Copy the file: multipath.conf.annoteted from /usr/share/doc/packages/multipathtools to /etc/ as multipath.conf Info: multipath.conf is separated in 4 parts which define how DM-MP handles the storage - defaults: system defaults - blacklist: contains that devices that will not be included in multipath - devices: settings for the storage system: vendor, model . - multipaths: settings for each multipath device (wwid) The changes for multipath.conf are: Recommendes setting for SLES 10: defaults { polling_interval default_features no_path_retry path_checker }

15 1 queue_if_no_path 10 readsector0

Uncomment the blacklist and disable multipath function for root-hdd (example: sda): blacklist { devnode ^(ram|raw|loop|fd|md|dm-|sr|scd|st)[0-9]* devnode ^hd[a-z][0-9]* devnode ^cciss!c[0-9]d[0-9]*[p[0-9]*] devnode ^sda$ }

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Uncomment the devices and change as follows: devices { device { vendor product path_checker } }

FSC * readsector0

7. Start multipath with the following commands: # /etc/init.d/boot.multipath start # /etc/init.d/multipathd start 8. Show multipath devices and groups # multipath v2 # multipath ll 3600c0ff0000a448e0609fd4402000000 [size=10 GB][features="0"][hwhandler="0"] \_ round-robin 0 [prio=1][active] \_ 2:0:0:1 sdc 8:32 [active][ready] \_ round-robin 0 [prio=1][enabled] \_ 3:0:1:1 sds 65:32 [active][ready] 3600c0ff0000a448e0609fd4401000000 [size=9 GB][features="0"][hwhandler="0"] \_ round-robin 0 [prio=1][active] \_ 2:0:0:0 sdb 8:16 [active][ready] \_ round-robin 0 [prio=1][enabled] \_ 3:0:1:0 sdr 65:16 [active][ready] 9. Enable MPIO start at reboot: # insserv boot.multipath multipathd 10. MPIO devices and alias-names All disk devices are directly accessible under /dev/disk/by-name/xxx. In this directory are all multipath devices listed with their unique UUID. Example: # ls /dev/disk/by-name
3600c0ff0000a448e0609fd4402000000 3600c0ff0000a448e0609fd4401000000

Due to the fact that these names are very long and not convenient for usage with mkfs, fstab etc, it is recommended to rename your multipath-groups in multipath.conf with alias-names:

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Example: multipaths { multipath { wwid 3600c0ff0000a448e0609fd4402000000 alias LUN2 } multipath { wwid 3600c0ff0000a448e0609fd4401000000 alias LUN1 } } You must have one multipath section for each wwid. After these changes, the output of multipath -ll shows the mp-groups with the alias-names:
LUN2 (3600c0ff0000a448e0609fd4402000000) [size=10 GB][features="0"][hwhandler="0"] \_ round-robin 0 [prio=1][active] \_ 2:0:0:1 sdc 8:32 [active][ready] \_ round-robin 0 [prio=1][enabled] \_ 3:0:1:1 sds 65:32 [active][ready] LUN1 (3600c0ff0000a448e0609fd4401000000) [size=9 GB][features="0"][hwhandler="0"] \_ round-robin 0 [prio=1][active] \_ 2:0:0:0 sdb 8:16 [active][ready] \_ round-robin 0 [prio=1][enabled] \_ 3:0:1:0 sdr 65:16 [active][ready]

Now you can create a file system on /dev/disk/by-name/LUN1 and /LUN2. Afterwards these file systems can be mounted to suitable directories. Now the disk space connected over native MPIO is accessible. Hints: 1. It is not neccessary to reboot the server. Changes in /etc/multipath.conf are activated by: # multipath v0 # multipath F # /etc/init.d/multipathd restart # multipath v2 2. Do not use the legacy names sdb, sdc, etc. shown by multipath ll. These names are not multipathed and this can lead to inconsistent I/O. 3. If the blacklist entry devnode ^sda$ in the /etc/multipath.conf doesnt work correctly you can use the wwid instead.