In case of SAN storage, most of the time we will be dealing with multipathing to

enable redundancy and load balancing of disks. The same is with 3PAR StoreServ
as well.
3PAR has HPDSMs for windows 2003 systems but from windows 2008 onwards they are
purely using native multipathing option to enable redundancy and loadbalancing f
or SAN sttached disks.
in this article, we will be exploring the possibilities of enabling native multi
pathing option from host side bu CLI and windows add feature methods.
1.
If you have not already done so, check HBA vendor documentation for any
required support drivers, and install them. If necessary, install the StorPort
miniport driver.MPIO is an optional feature in Windows Server 2008, and is not i
nstalled by default. To install MPIO on your server running Windows Server 2008,
we should follow below mentioned method.
Open Server Manager. To open Server Manager, click Start, point to Administrativ
e Tools, and then click Server Manager.
In the Server Manager tree, click Features.
In the Features area, click Add Features.
In the Add Features Wizard, on the Select Features page, select the Multipath I/
O check box, and then click Next.
On the Confirm Installation Selections page, click Install.
When the installation has completed, on the Installation Results page, click Clo
se. When prompted to restart the computer, click Yes.
After restarting the computer, the computer finalizes the MPIO installation.
Click Close.
Other possible method is using command line tools and MPIO commands
To install MPIO on windows, run following command
C:\Users\Administrator>ocsetup MultiathIo /norestart
/norestart is used to supress the automated reboot after enabling the feature.Ma
ke sure to run the command using Administrator account or an account which has A
dministrator privileages else the command will not work as expected.
Once MPIO is enabled and system is rebooted, follow below mentioned tasks to con
figure your SAN disks.
1.
On the Windows Server 2008 desktop, click Start, point to Administrativ
e Tools, and then click MPIO.
2.
On the User Account Control page, click Continue. The MPIO control panel
opens to the Properties dialog box.
3.
In the MPIO Devices tab, click the Add button; the Add MPIO Support popu
p appears.
4.
In the Device Hardware ID: text box, enter 3PARdataVV, and click OK
5. Reboot as directed.
Next is to setup multipath policy for the disks.Basically Windows 2008 serverla
ter versions connected to 3PAR StoreServ requires round robin as the MPIO policy
. The Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, or Windows Server 2008 R2 ser
vers do not need to change the multipath policy, as it defaults to Round Robin.
To verify the MPIO policy, follow these steps:
1 In the Server Manager, click Diagnostics; select Device Manager. Expand the Di
sk
drives list.
2 Right-click a 3PAR drive to display its Properties window and select the MPIO

tab. Select
Round Robin from the drop-down menu
3 Click OK once you are done.
Let's see the CLI version,
Once MPIO is installed and enabled, next step is to scan for the SAN devices.
mpclaim is the basic command used to cliam the attached SAN devices. Some addito
nal switches are used along with the command to scan the attached devices, the a
re as follows,
-n
-i
-a

Suppress reboot request (caller may need to reboot)

Add multipath support for device.
Work on all applicable devices.

C:\Users\Administrator>mpclaim -n -i -a
Success, reboot required.
Reboot as required.
Once reboot is completed, use mpclaim command to see the querried devices. Again
there is option to be used along with the command.
-e
Queries connected enterprise storage and displays as vendor-product id
strings.
C:\Users\Administrator>mpclaim -e
"Target H/W Identifier " Bus Type
MPIO-ed
ALUA Support
------------------------------------------------------------------------------"3PARdataVV
" Fibre
YES
ALUA Not Supported