Fibre Channel problem

Since upgrading one of our storage servers to version 7 we are having problems with Vmware seeing the the target and volumes.

What we have noticed is that the fibre switch is showing that the port is in both modes (target/initiator), i have tried different ports and it is the same on the second FC switch as well. This is causing the problem with vmware because as soon as i plug a version 6 DSS server into the port it all works correctly.

So it seems that Version 7 of DSS does not advertise itself correctly.:mad:

Similar problem here with 10GBe cards connected to a 10GBe SFP switch.
The link status of the ethernet card and the switch shows up, but we cant get a ping through it.
With V6 on the same hardware it works perfectly

We already opened a support ticket...

Ok I have managed to find out how to fix this, it appears that with DSSV7 the switches are not seeing the qlogic fibre cards as qlogic cards. So I had to disable the I/O Streamguard on the ports of the fc switch that the servers where plugged into. Now I can see all the volumes and targets with the vmware servers :D

Gavin

We are looking into this driver issue with the V7 and have the developers checking it out, we might need to get you another small update. Thanks for doing all the testing and verifying the network :)

Even though I have it working it is not as stable as DSSV6 was as we are getting some disconnection errors. I did raise a support call and mentioned the issue and I was told this was by design, really!!!! :mad: doesn't sound right. Why take a backward step and expect users to have to force fibre channel switch ports to certain settings. I am starting to think that we upgraded from DSSV6 that was working to DSSV7 that is less stable and worst of all we had to pay for this. I must admit that the interface is better in V7

Hang tight.... We found a similar issue on monday with a case, the support team is getting the developers involved to get some small update for the DSS V7. I placed a note on your ticket and the other case to run it up the ladder. I will have them reply to you when they get this small update ready.

Thanks todd,
hopefully it will be quick as these servers are in production and have our entire vm network in there, i am moving one of the servers back to V6 to get some stability
Regards
Gavin

Gavin,
We have found the issue, but it is still undecided if we can correct it with a small update. Devs are still working on that side of it.
Should have more info in the next 24hrs or so.

Greg

Thanks Greg, another funny thing or could be coincidence, as soon as I setup a partnership and created some replication tasks I started getting disconnections even though the tasks had not been started. Have removed tasks and partnership and the disconnection errors have reduced. Just thought I would mention this


Regards

Gavin

I am busy testing a fix that can only be used if Active/Active is not being used. So far the FC switches now see the servers as targets and we have had no issues with VMware losing disconnections to the volumes :D , I have not enabled replication yet but will do that tomorrow if all is still stable. I will monitor for a couple of days and post an update.

Gavin

Thanks Gavin.
Let us know how things go.

G

Any update on this issue? We are running DSS7 with qLogic cards and Brocade fabric switches. We have two uplinks from the DSS box into the fabric, and I am seeing "port flapping" every second. This is not happening on DSS6. It's nice and stable.
We have replaced SFP's on switches, all cables and HBA's in the DSS array. No change. Must be a configuration issue.
We'll open a ticket tomorrow.
FCSW01:root> fabriclog -s
Time Stamp Input and *Action S, P Sn,Pn Port Xid
================================================== ==============================
Wed Jan 16 14:42:39 2013
14:42:39.753 SCN Port Offline;g=0x2030 D2,P1 D2,P0 3 NA
14:42:39.756 *Removing all nodes from port D2,P0 D2,P0 3 NA
14:42:40.567 SCN LR_PORT (0);g=0x2030 D2,P0 D2,P0 3 NA
14:42:40.569 SCN Port Online;g=0x2030 D2,P0 D2,P1 3 NA
14:43:39.490 SCN Port Offline;g=0x2032 D2,P1 D2,P0 3 NA
14:43:39.492 *Removing all nodes from port D2,P0 D2,P0 3 NA
14:43:40.285 SCN LR_PORT (0);g=0x2032 D2,P0 D2,P0 3 NA
14:43:40.288 SCN Port Online;g=0x2032 D2,P0 D2,P1 3 NA
14:44:39.502 SCN Port Offline;g=0x2034 D2,P1 D2,P0 3 NA
14:44:39.505 *Removing all nodes from port D2,P0 D2,P0 3 NA
14:44:40.444 SCN LR_PORT (0);g=0x2034 D2,P0 D2,P0 3 NA
14:44:40.446 SCN Port Online;g=0x2034 D2,P0 D2,P1 3 NA
14:45:40.340 SCN Port Offline;g=0x2036 D2,P1 D2,P0 3 NA
14:45:40.342 *Removing all nodes from port D2,P0 D2,P0 3 NA
14:45:41.220 SCN LR_PORT (0);g=0x2036 D2,P0 D2,P0 3 NA
14:45:41.223 SCN Port Online;g=0x2036 D2,P0 D2,P1 3 NA
14:46:40.058 SCN Port Offline;g=0x2038 D2,P1 D2,P0 3 NA
14:46:40.060 *Removing all nodes from port D2,P0 D2,P0 3 NA
14:46:41.045 SCN LR_PORT (0);g=0x2038 D2,P0 D2,P0 3 NA
14:46:41.046 SCN Port Online;g=0x2038 D2,P0 D2,P1 3 NA
14:47:39.848 SCN Port Offline;g=0x203a D2,P1 D2,P0 3 NA