sean walmsley <[email protected]> writes:
> Just in case it helps someone else supporting older SPARC SunFire equipment:
>
> I've just configured and tested a SunFire V440 server with a Sun branded
> PCI-X SAS HBAs
> (really LSI) connected via two SAS cables to a Sun J4200 JBOD containing two
> SIM boards. I
> want to emphasize that according to my Sun reps this configuration is "not
> supported". Specifically:
>
> - only PCI-E (not PCI-X) HBAs are currently supported with the J4200 series
> - multipathing (MPxIO) is not supported with the J4200
>
> My speculation was that this configuration isn't supported mainly due to a
> lack of testing
> resources on Sun's part rather than because of a specific incompatibility
> (i.e. Sun wants to
> concentrate testing on newer products with the J4200). Based on this, I
> configured a
> system as follows:
>
> - V440 running Solaris 10 10/08
> - a single PCI-X SAS HBA with two external mini-SAS connectors (I realize
> that
> this presents a single point of failure, but this system was just for
> testing)
> - J4200 with two SIM boards
> - CAM software version 6.1.2
> - SIM firmware updated to the versions included in the CAM software
> - one of the HBA mini-SAS connectors wired to the top J4200 SIM board, and
> one
> wired to the bottom SIM board
> - "stmsboot -D mpt -e" run to turn on multi-pathing for the MPT driver
> - system rebooted
> - ZFS volumes created on the 12 JBOD drives
> - filebench used to exercise the system
> - SAS cables hot-plugged to simulate failure
>
> Hotplugging the cables causes IO to cease for ~60 seconds initially, but it
> then
> picks up again and messages are logged to /var/adm/messages indicating that
> the
> multipath link is degraded. On re-plug of the cable, the link is immediately
> marked
> as "optimal".
>
> Note the use of the latest version of Solaris and the latest SIM firmware - I
> think that using earlier versions may not work (although I haven't tried
> this).
>
> As always, your mileage may vary.
I'm in roughly the same boat as you: I've got a Sun Fire X4200 M2 running
Solaris 10 Update 5 with two SAS HBAs connected to a J4400. I've been
trying to get a statement/roadmap/whatever on multipathing support in this
configuration literally for months from my Sun Sales Rep, but failed so
far. I couldn't really try it myself since I didn't get the second SAS
Interface Module, bould wouldn't probably run an unsupported configuration
in production anyway, even if it works.
This is getting ridiculous: Sun is touting those JBOD boxes with ZFS as
replacements for HW RAID systems, but cannot get the support story about
Multipathing support straight for several months? How are we supposed to
take that statement serious, not even being told what the impediment is:
lack of testing, hardware/firmware problems, lack of O/S software support
or whatever?
Rainer
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rainer Orth, Faculty of Technology, Bielefeld University
_______________________________________________
storage-discuss mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/storage-discuss
