Hi,

I am trying to install Solaris 10 u3 x86 onto a 64 bit IBM HS20 blade.

All our blades have, as their only "disks", a 2 fibrechannel paths to our 3pardata SAN backend.

I'd like to use these 2 paths in a round robin fashion via mpxio that's built into Solaris, but it doesn't seem supported be default.

Obviously when I try to install both paths appear as separate disks in the partitioning section of the installer.

I have had some limited success by putting the lines:

device-type-scsi-options-list =
"3PARdataVV", "symmetric-option";
symmetric-option = 0x1000000;

into my x86.miniroot's /kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf. This lets me see the single multipathed volume in the installer, but it breaks when I try to do a reboot after the install is finished. It doesn't seem to transfer to the actual install, therefore the box just reboots after it runs Grub and tries to boot the kernel.

I have also tried to turn on multipathing after installation, but due to a lack of stmsboot on x86 I've hit a brick wall and am not sure what to do.

Can someone please shed some light on this for me if you have experience booting from unsupported (by default) multipath volumes?

Clues and tips from people who have never tried this are also welcome.

I'd preferably like to solve this via jumpstart (since I tftpboot install) rather than hacking package files and my x86.miniroot and I'd also like to not have to reconfigure each host after install, I'd rather have the installer work for my setup.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
B

mpxio only supports sun branded (emulex and qlc cards with Sun firmware) 
HBAs. This is what I was told by Sun.

"Bob" <ftoomch@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:46029cc2$0$17533$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to install Solaris 10 u3 x86 onto a 64 bit IBM HS20 blade.
>
> All our blades have, as their only "disks", a 2 fibrechannel paths to our 
> 3pardata SAN backend.
>
> I'd like to use these 2 paths in a round robin fashion via mpxio that's 
> built into Solaris, but it doesn't seem supported be default.
>
> Obviously when I try to install both paths appear as separate disks in the 
> partitioning section of the installer.
>
> I have had some limited success by putting the lines:
>
> device-type-scsi-options-list =
> "3PARdataVV", "symmetric-option";
> symmetric-option = 0x1000000;
>
> into my x86.miniroot's /kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf. This lets me see the 
> single multipathed volume in the installer, but it breaks when I try to do 
> a reboot after the install is finished. It doesn't seem to transfer to the 
> actual install, therefore the box just reboots after it runs Grub and 
> tries to boot the kernel.
>
> I have also tried to turn on multipathing after installation, but due to a 
> lack of stmsboot on x86 I've hit a brick wall and am not sure what to do.
>
> Can someone please shed some light on this for me if you have experience 
> booting from unsupported (by default) multipath volumes?
>
> Clues and tips from people who have never tried this are also welcome.
>
> I'd preferably like to solve this via jumpstart (since I tftpboot install) 
> rather than hacking package files and my x86.miniroot and I'd also like to 
> not have to reconfigure each host after install, I'd rather have the 
> installer work for my setup.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks,
> B 

In comp.sys.sun.admin Sharif Rizal <sharif.rizal@gmail.com> wrote:
> mpxio only supports sun branded (emulex and qlc cards with Sun firmware) 
> HBAs. This is what I was told by Sun.

support != working.

I'm running an Emulex LP9802 FC-Adapter with Emulex firmware with no
problems. You have to use the Sun device driver though (emlxs instead of
lpfc).


> "Bob" <ftoomch@gmail.com> wrote in message 
>> device-type-scsi-options-list =
>> "3PARdataVV", "symmetric-option";
>> symmetric-option = 0x1000000;
>>
>> into my x86.miniroot's /kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf. This lets me see the 
>> single multipathed volume in the installer, but it breaks when I try to do 
>> a reboot after the install is finished. It doesn't seem to transfer to the 
>> actual install, therefore the box just reboots after it runs Grub and 
>> tries to boot the kernel.

So edit the file manually before rebooting. Don't select "Automatic reboot"
during installation. At the end of the installation drop to a shell
prompt and edit /a/kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf.

>> I have also tried to turn on multipathing after installation, but due to a 
>> lack of stmsboot on x86 I've hit a brick wall and am not sure what to do.

stmsboot is just a shell script. You should be able to the necessary
configuration changes manually.

http://cvs.opensolaris.org/source/xref/onnv/onnv-gate/usr/src/cmd/stmsboot/stmsboot.sh

-- 
Daniel

In article <46029cc2$0$17533$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au>,
Bob  <ftoomch@gmail.com> wrote:
>I am trying to install Solaris 10 u3 x86 onto a 64 bit IBM HS20 blade.
>
>All our blades have, as their only "disks", a 2 fibrechannel paths to
>our 3pardata SAN backend.
>
>I'd like to use these 2 paths in a round robin fashion via mpxio that's
>built into Solaris, but it doesn't seem supported be default.
>
>Obviously when I try to install both paths appear as separate disks in
>the partitioning section of the installer.
>
>I have had some limited success by putting the lines:
>
>device-type-scsi-options-list =
>"3PARdataVV", "symmetric-option";
>symmetric-option = 0x1000000;
>
>into my x86.miniroot's /kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf. This lets me see the
>single multipathed volume in the installer, but it breaks when I try to
>do a reboot after the install is finished. It doesn't seem to transfer
>to the actual install, therefore the box just reboots after it runs Grub
>and tries to boot the kernel.
>
>I have also tried to turn on multipathing after installation, but due to
>a lack of stmsboot on x86 I've hit a brick wall and am not sure what to
>do.
>
>Can someone please shed some light on this for me if you have experience
>booting from unsupported (by default) multipath volumes?
>
>Clues and tips from people who have never tried this are also welcome.
>
>I'd preferably like to solve this via jumpstart (since I tftpboot
>install) rather than hacking package files and my x86.miniroot and I'd
>also like to not have to reconfigure each host after install, I'd rather
>have the installer work for my setup.
>
>Any ideas?

Silly question, but... Did you set the "mpixio-disable" parameter in
/kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf file to "no"? And, if you did, did you use
cfgadm to combine the controller paths to create the virtual devices?

-tom
-- 

"You can only be -so- accurate with a claw-hammer."  --me

Thomas H Jones II wrote:
> In article <46029cc2$0$17533$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au>,
> Bob  <ftoomch@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I am trying to install Solaris 10 u3 x86 onto a 64 bit IBM HS20 blade.
>>
>> All our blades have, as their only "disks", a 2 fibrechannel paths to
>> our 3pardata SAN backend.
>>
>> I'd like to use these 2 paths in a round robin fashion via mpxio that's
>> built into Solaris, but it doesn't seem supported be default.
>>
>> Obviously when I try to install both paths appear as separate disks in
>> the partitioning section of the installer.
>>
>> I have had some limited success by putting the lines:
>>
>> device-type-scsi-options-list =
>> "3PARdataVV", "symmetric-option";
>> symmetric-option = 0x1000000;
>>
>> into my x86.miniroot's /kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf. This lets me see the
>> single multipathed volume in the installer, but it breaks when I try to
>> do a reboot after the install is finished. It doesn't seem to transfer
>> to the actual install, therefore the box just reboots after it runs Grub
>> and tries to boot the kernel.
>>
>> I have also tried to turn on multipathing after installation, but due to
>> a lack of stmsboot on x86 I've hit a brick wall and am not sure what to
>> do.
>>
>> Can someone please shed some light on this for me if you have experience
>> booting from unsupported (by default) multipath volumes?
>>
>> Clues and tips from people who have never tried this are also welcome.
>>
>> I'd preferably like to solve this via jumpstart (since I tftpboot
>> install) rather than hacking package files and my x86.miniroot and I'd
>> also like to not have to reconfigure each host after install, I'd rather
>> have the installer work for my setup.
>>
>> Any ideas?
> 
> Silly question, but... Did you set the "mpixio-disable" parameter in
> /kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf file to "no"? And, if you did, did you use
> cfgadm to combine the controller paths to create the virtual devices?
> 
> -tom

No, I let the install environment boot up. That's all I did.

I think you're talking about the fp.conf file, but it defaults to "mpxio-disable=no" anyway.

To reiterate, I'd rather not bother doing post-install config when it should be able to be done though just a simple little change to the /kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf before the install.

Daniel Rock wrote:
> In comp.sys.sun.admin Sharif Rizal <sharif.rizal@gmail.com> wrote:
>> mpxio only supports sun branded (emulex and qlc cards with Sun firmware) 
>> HBAs. This is what I was told by Sun.
> 
> support != working.

Yep, working is all I need for the moment.

> 
> I'm running an Emulex LP9802 FC-Adapter with Emulex firmware with no
> problems. You have to use the Sun device driver though (emlxs instead of
> lpfc).
> 
> 
>> "Bob" <ftoomch@gmail.com> wrote in message 
>>> device-type-scsi-options-list =
>>> "3PARdataVV", "symmetric-option";
>>> symmetric-option = 0x1000000;
>>>
>>> into my x86.miniroot's /kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf. This lets me see the 
>>> single multipathed volume in the installer, but it breaks when I try to do 
>>> a reboot after the install is finished. It doesn't seem to transfer to the 
>>> actual install, therefore the box just reboots after it runs Grub and 
>>> tries to boot the kernel.
> 
> So edit the file manually before rebooting. Don't select "Automatic reboot"
> during installation. At the end of the installation drop to a shell
> prompt and edit /a/kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf.

I did this and it worked. I'm wondering though, might there be a neater way? Through jumpstart or whatever. scsi_vhci.conf was the only file I had to edit.

I'm eventually going to want to do unattended installs via pxe boot. Halfway there...

> 
>>> I have also tried to turn on multipathing after installation, but due to a 
>>> lack of stmsboot on x86 I've hit a brick wall and am not sure what to do.
> 
> stmsboot is just a shell script. You should be able to the necessary
> configuration changes manually.
> 
> http://cvs.opensolaris.org/source/xref/onnv/onnv-gate/usr/src/cmd/stmsboot/stmsboot.sh
> 

Yep, good to see the steps I have to consider

Thanks,
B

Daniel Rock wrote:
> In comp.sys.sun.admin Sharif Rizal <sharif.rizal@gmail.com> wrote:
>> mpxio only supports sun branded (emulex and qlc cards with Sun firmware) 
>> HBAs. This is what I was told by Sun.
> 
> support != working.

Yep, working is all I need for the moment.

> 
> I'm running an Emulex LP9802 FC-Adapter with Emulex firmware with no
> problems. You have to use the Sun device driver though (emlxs instead of
> lpfc).
> 
> 
>> "Bob" <ftoomch@gmail.com> wrote in message 
>>> device-type-scsi-options-list =
>>> "3PARdataVV", "symmetric-option";
>>> symmetric-option = 0x1000000;
>>>
>>> into my x86.miniroot's /kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf. This lets me see the 
>>> single multipathed volume in the installer, but it breaks when I try to do 
>>> a reboot after the install is finished. It doesn't seem to transfer to the 
>>> actual install, therefore the box just reboots after it runs Grub and 
>>> tries to boot the kernel.
> 
> So edit the file manually before rebooting. Don't select "Automatic reboot"
> during installation. At the end of the installation drop to a shell
> prompt and edit /a/kernel/drv/scsi_vhci.conf.

I did this and it worked. I'm wondering though, might there be a neater way? Through jumpstart or whatever. scsi_vhci.conf was the only file I had to edit.

I'm eventually going to want to do unattended installs via pxe boot. Halfway there...

> 
>>> I have also tried to turn on multipathing after installation, but due to a 
>>> lack of stmsboot on x86 I've hit a brick wall and am not sure what to do.
> 
> stmsboot is just a shell script. You should be able to the necessary
> configuration changes manually.
> 
> http://cvs.opensolaris.org/source/xref/onnv/onnv-gate/usr/src/cmd/stmsboot/stmsboot.sh
> 

Yep, good to see the steps I have to consider

Thanks,
B