The Host Server. Oracle Solaris Configuration Guide. October The authority on real-time data

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1 The Host Server Oracle Solaris Configuration Guide October 2018 This guide provides configuration settings and considerations for Hosts running Oracle Solaris with SANsymphony. Basic Oracle Solaris storage administration skills are assumed including how to connect to iscsi and Fibre Channel target ports and the discovering, mounting and formatting of disk devices. The authority on real-time data

2 Table of contents Changes made to this document 3 Oracle Solaris compatibility list 4 Oracle Solaris operating system versions 4 Oracle Solaris Cluster versions 5 The DataCore Server's settings 7 Port roles 7 Multipathing ALUA support 7 7 Serving Virtual Disks 7 The Solaris Host's settings 9 Disk device settings 9 MPxIO support Solaris 11.x 10 MPxIO support Solaris 10.x 11 Known Issues 12 Appendix A 13 Preferred Server & Preferred Path settings 13 Appendix B 14 Reclaiming Storage from Disk Pools 14 Previous changes 16

3 Changes made to this document The most recent version of this document is available from here: All changes since February 2018 General This document has been reviewed for SANsymphony 10.0 PSP 8. No additional settings or configurations are required. For previous changes made to this document please see page 16 Page 3

4 Oracle Solaris compatibility list Oracle Solaris operating system versions SANsymphony 9.0 PSP 4 Update 4 (1) SANsymphony 10.0 (all versions) SOLARIS WITH ALUA WITHOUT ALUA WITH ALUA WITHOUT ALUA 9.0 or earlier Not Supported Not Supported Not Supported Not Supported 10.0 Not Supported Not Qualified Not Supported Qualified 11.0 Not Supported Qualified Not Supported Not Qualified 11.1 Not Supported Qualified Not Supported Qualified 11.2 Not Supported Not Qualified Not Supported Qualified 11.3 Not Supported Not Supported Not Qualified [2] Qualified Notes: Qualified vs. Not Qualified vs. Not Supported See page 6 for definitions. DataCore Server Front-End Port connections Fibre Channel connections are supported. ISCSI connections are not supported. With Oracle Solaris Cluster See next page for the Oracle Solaris Cluster versions that can be used. SCSI UNMAP There is no support for SCSI UNMAP from Solaris hosts. 1 Earlier versions are End of Life. See: 2 A fix by Oracle for Solaris 11.3 was added in Package Update 3 (11.3.3) that allows ALUA on Solaris to work with DataCore Servers. Users who wish to 'Self Qualify' with ALUA can do so, but must be on at least Oracle Solaris to run the self-qualification tests. Page 4

5 Solaris compatibility lists Oracle Solaris Cluster versions Oracle Solaris Operating System Version CLUSTER 9.x AND EARLIER 10.x 11.x 2.x Not Supported Not Supported Not Supported 3.x Not Supported Supported Not Supported 4.x Not Supported Not Supported Supported Notes: See the previous page for Oracle Solaris / SANsymphony combinations that are qualified. Page 5

6 Solaris compatibility lists Qualified vs. Not Qualified vs. Not Supported Qualified This combination has been tested by DataCore and all the host-specific settings listed in this document applied using non-mirrored, mirrored and Dual Virtual Disks. Not Qualified This combination has not yet been tested by DataCore using Mirrored or Dual Virtual Disks types. DataCore cannot guarantee 'high availability' (failover/failback, continued access etc.) even if the host-specific settings listed in this document are applied. Self-qualification may be possible please see Technical Support FAQ #1506 Mirrored or Dual Virtual Disks types are configured at the users own risk; however, any problems that are encountered while using AIX versions that are 'Not Qualified' will still get root-cause analysis. Non-mirrored Virtual Disks are always considered 'Qualified' - even for 'Not Qualified' combinations of AIX/SANsymphony. Not Supported This combination has either failed 'high availability' testing by DataCore using Mirrored or Dual Virtual Disks types; or the operating System's own requirements/limitations (e.g. age, specific hardware requirements) make it impractical to test. DataCore will not guarantee 'high availability' (failover/failback, continued access etc.) if the host-specific settings listed in this document are applied. Mirrored or Dual Virtual Disks types are configured at the users own risk. Self-qualification is not possible. Mirrored or Dual Virtual Disks types are configured at the users own risk; however, any problems that are encountered while using AIX versions that are 'Not Supported' will get best-effort Technical Support (e.g. to get access to Virtual Disks) but no root-cause analysis will be done. Non-mirrored Virtual Disks are always considered 'Qualified' even for 'Not Supported' combinations of AIX/SANsymphony. AIX versions that are End of Service Self-qualification may be possible for versions that are considered Not Qualified by DataCore but only if there is an agreed support contract with IBM. Please contact DataCore Technical Support before attempting any self-qualification of For any problems that are encountered while using AIX versions that are EOS with DataCore Software, only best-effort Technical Support will be performed (e.g. to get access to Virtual Disks). Root-cause analysis will not be done. Non-mirrored Virtual Disks are always considered 'Qualified'. Page 6

7 The DataCore Server's settings Operating System Type See the Registering Hosts section from the SANsymphony Help: When registering the Host for the first time, choose the 'Oracle (SUN) Solaris' menu option. Port roles Ports used for serving Virtual Disks to Hosts should only have the Front End (FE) role enabled. Mixing other Port Role types may cause unexpected results as Ports that only have the FE role enabled will be turned off when the DataCore Server software is stopped (even if the physical server remains running). This helps to guarantee that any Hosts do not still try to access FE Ports, for any reason, once the DataCore Software is stopped but where the DataCore Server remains running. Any Port with the Mirror and/or Back End role enabled do not shut off when the DataCore Server software is stopped but still remain active. Multipathing The Multipathing Support option should be enabled so that Mirrored Virtual Disks or Dual Virtual Disks can be served to Hosts from all available DataCore FE ports. Also see the Multipathing Support section from the SANsymphony Help: WebHelp/Hosts.htm Non-mirrored Virtual Disks and Multipathing Non-mirrored Virtual Disks can still be served to multiple Hosts and/or multiple Host Ports from one or more DataCore Server FE Ports if required; in this case the Host can use its own multipathing software to manage the multiple Host paths to the Single Virtual Disk as if it was a Mirrored or Dual Virtual Disk. ALUA support Please refer to the Solaris Compatibility List on page 4. Serving Virtual Disks For the first time DataCore recommends that before serving Virtual Disks for the first time to a Host, that all DataCore Front-End ports on all DataCore Servers are correctly discovered by the Host first. Then, from within the SANsymphony Console, the Virtual Disk is marked Online, up to date and that the storage sources have a host access status of Read/Write. To more than one Host port DataCore Virtual Disks always have their own unique Network Address Authority (NAA) identifier that a Host can use to manage the same Virtual Disk being served to multiple Ports on the same Host Server and the same Virtual Disk being served to multiple Hosts. Page 7

8 The DataCore Server's settings While DataCore cannot guarantee that a disk device's NAA is used by a Host's operating system to identify a disk device served to it over different paths generally we have found that it is. And while there is sometimes a convention that all paths by the same disk device should always using the same LUN 'number' to guarantees consistency for device identification, this may not be technically true. Always refer to the Host Operating System vendor s own documentation for advice on this. DataCore's Software does, however always try to create mappings between the Host's ports and the DataCore Server's Front-end (FE) ports for a Virtual Disk using the same LUN number where it can. The software will first find the next available (lowest) LUN 'number' for the Host- DataCore FE mapping combination being applied and will then try to apply that same LUN number for all other mappings that are being attempted when the Virtual Disk is being served. If any Host-DataCore FE port combination being requested at that moment is already using that same LUN number (e.g. if a Host has other Virtual Disks served to it from previous) then the software will find the next available LUN number and apply that to those specific Host-DataCore FE mappings only. Also See Registering Hosts Changing Virtual Disk Settings - SCSI Standard Inquiry Page 8

9 The Solaris Host's settings Disk device settings Disk IO timeout /kernel/system Add the following line to set the Disk IO Timeout to 60 seconds. set sd:sd_io_time = 0x3c Disk retry settings /kernel/drv/sd.conf or /kernel/drv/ssd.conf Depending on your architecture edit either /kernel/drv/sd.conf or /kernel/drv/ssd.conf and add the following entries: sd-config-list = "DataCoreVirtual Disk", "retries-busy:60"; sd-config-list = "DataCoreSANsymphony", "retries-busy:60"; sd-config-list = "DataCoreSANmelody", "retries-busy:60"; Notes A reboot of the Solaris server will be needed for the setting to take effect. If the sd_io_time entry already exists, make sure the value is set as above. The value must be entered as a hexadecimal value. The lines for "DataCoreSANsymphony" and "DataCoreSANmelody" disk devices may only necessary if the Virtual Disk served to the Solaris Host was created using DataCore's SANmelody or SANsymphony 7.x and earlier software versions. Page 9

10 The Solaris Host's settings MPxIO support Solaris 11.x /etc/driver/drv/scsi_vhci.conf Add the following entries: scsi-vhci-failover-override = "DataCoreVirtual Disk", "f_sym"; scsi-vhci-failover-override = "DataCoreSANsymphony", "f_sym"; scsi-vhci-failover-override = "DataCoreSANmelody", "f_sym"; In the Load balancing global configuration section set the following entry: load-balance="none"; Notes The lines for "DataCoreSANsymphony" and "DataCoreSANmelody" disk devices may only be necessary if the Virtual Disk served to the Solaris Host was created using DataCore's SANmelody or SANsymphony 7.x and earlier software versions. 'stmsboot e' and 'stmsboot u' commands will be needed to enable multipathing (if not previously run) and the vfstab will need to be updated as well. In either case a reboot will be needed. Refer to Oracle for advice. Also See Managing SAN Devices and Multipathing in Oracle Solaris 11.3 Configuring Oracle Solaris I/O Multipathing Features 'Configuring Third-Party Storage Devices' 'Configuring Load Balancing Policy for Oracle Solaris I/O Multipathing' Oracle s Solaris Administration Guide How to Customize a Driver Configuration System Administration Commands stmsboot Changing Virtual Disk Settings - SCSI Standard Inquiry Page 10

11 The Solaris Host's settings MPxIO support Solaris 10.x /etc/driver/drv/scsi_vhci.conf Add the following entries: device-type-scsi-options-list = "DataCoreVirtual Disk", "symmetric-option"; "DataCoreSANsymphony", "symmetric-option"; "DataCoreSANmelody", "symmetric-option"; symmetric-option=0x ; In the Load balancing global configuration section set the following entry: load-balance="none"; Notes The lines for "DataCoreSANsymphony" and "DataCoreSANmelody" disk devices may only be necessary if the Virtual Disk served to the Solaris Host was created using DataCore's SANmelody or SANsymphony 7.x and earlier software versions. 'stmsboot e' and 'stmsboot u' commands will be needed to enable multipathing (if not previously run) and the vfstab will need to be updated as well. In either case a reboot will be needed. Refer to Oracle for advice. Also See Managing SAN Devices and Multipathing in Oracle Solaris 11.3 Configuring Oracle Solaris I/O Multipathing Features 'Configuring Third-Party Storage Devices' 'Configuring Load Balancing Policy for Oracle Solaris I/O Multipathing' Oracle s Solaris Administration Guide How to Customize a Driver Configuration System Administration Commands stmsboot Changing Virtual Disk Settings - SCSI Standard Inquiry Page 11

12 Known Issues The following is intended to make DataCore Software users aware of any issues that affect performance, access or may give unexpected results under particular conditions when SANsymphony is used in configurations with Oracle Solaris Hosts. These Known Issues may have been found during DataCore s own testing but others may have been reported by our users when a solution was found that was not to do with DataCore s own products. DataCore cannot be held responsible for incorrect information regarding another vendor s products and no assumptions should be made that DataCore has any communication with these other vendors regarding the issues listed here. We always recommend that the vendor s should be contacted directly for more information on anything listed in this section. For Known issues that apply to DataCore Software s own products, please refer to the relevant DataCore Software Component s release notes. Two or more Disk Devices are listed for the same DataCore Virtual Disk Check for mistakes in the scsi_vhci.conf file see page 9, Make sure that multipathing has been enabled via the 'stmsboot e' command Make sure that the Host has been rebooted after using the 'stmsboot u' command. All paths to DataCore Virtual Disk are considered primary There is no simple way to determine an Oracle Solaris Host s current active path (for example using the 'luxadm' command) so use either Oracle Solaris own system messages - which may indicate the current path being used and/or SANsymphony s Live Performance UI to see IO being sent to/from Host Ports. Also see: Live Performance Page 12

13 Appendix A Preferred Server & Preferred Path settings Without ALUA enabled If Hosts are registered without ALUA support, the Preferred Server and Preferred Path settings will serve no function. All DataCore Servers and their respective Front End (FE) paths are considered equal. It is up to the Host s own Operating System or Failover Software to determine which DataCore Server is its preferred server. With ALUA enabled ALUA is not supported for Oracle Solaris Hosts. Also see Preferred Servers and Preferred Paths from: Page 13

14 Appendix B Reclaiming Storage from Disk Pools How much storage will be reclaimed? This is impossible to predict. SANsymphony can only reclaim Storage Allocation Units that have no block-level data on them. If a Host write its data all over its own filesystem, rather than contiguously, the amount of storage that can be reclaimed may be significantly less than expected. Defragmenting data on Virtual Disks It may be possible to use a Host s own defragmentation tools to consolidate data spread out all over the host s filesystem but care should be taken as even more storage may be allocated while the existing data is defragmented. Once any defragmentation is completed then additional steps will need to wipe the free filesystem space on the host and then use SANsymphony s Manual Reclamation. Notes on SANsymphony's Reclamation feature Automatic Reclamation SANsymphony checks for any zero write I/O as it is received by the Disk Pool and keeps track of which block addresses they were sent to. When all the blocks of an allocated SAU have received zero write I/O, the storage used by the SAU is then reclaimed. Mirrored and replicated Virtual Disks will mirror/replicate the zero write I/O so that storage can be reclaimed on the mirror/replication destination DataCore Server in the same way. Manual Reclamation SANsymphony checks for zero block data by sending read I/O to the storage. When all the blocks of an allocated SAU are detected as having zero data on them, the storage used by the SAU is then reclaimed. Mirrored Virtual Disks will receive the manual reclamation request on all DataCore Servers involved in the mirror configuration at the same time and each DataCore Server will read from its own storage. The Manual reclamation request is not sent to replication destination DataCore Servers from the source. Replication destinations will need to be manually reclaimed separately. Page 14

15 Appendix B Reclaiming storage from Disk Pools Reclaiming storage on the Host manually A suggestion would be to create a sparse file of an appropriate size and write zeroes it using the dd command. Here is an example with a 2TB sparse file: dd if=/dev/zero of=my_sparse_file bs=1024 count= Also see Auto-reclamation of unused SAUs Reclaiming Unused Virtual Disk Space in Disk Pools: Page 15

16 Previous changes General This document has been reviewed for SANsymphony 10.0 PSP 7. No additional settings or configurations are required. February 2018 Removed Appendix B Configuring Disk Pools The information here has been removed as it is now superseded by the information in: The DataCore Server- Best Practice Guidelines What was previously 'Appendix C' has now been moved to 'Appendix B'. List of qualified Oracle Solaris Versions Solaris 11.3 is now qualified with SANsymphony-V 10.x without ALUA. October 2017 This document has been reviewed for SANsymphony 10.0 PSP 6 (including all updates). No additional technical information was required. May 2017 Appendix C - Reclaiming storage Automatic and Manual reclamation These two sections have been re-written with more detailed explanations and technical notes. November 2016 This document has been reviewed for SANsymphony 10.0 PSP 5. No updates were required. July 2016 Host Settings - Configuring MPxIO support for DataCore Virtual Disks March 2016 Oracle Solaris 10.x Two more lines have been added for the 'scsi_vhci.conf 'file. Previously the required setting was documented as this: device-type-scsi-options-list = "DataCoreVirtual Disk", "symmetric-option"; symmetric-option=0x ; The setting is now documented as: device-type-scsi-options-list = "DataCoreVirtual Disk", "symmetric-option"; "DataCoreSANsymphony", "symmetric-option"; "DataCoreSANmelody", "symmetric-option"; symmetric-option=0x ; Oracle Solaris 11.x Two more lines have been added for the scsi-vhci-failover-override file. Previously the required setting was documented as this: scsi-vhci-failover-override = "DataCoreVirtual Disk", "f_sym"; Page 16

17 Previous changes The setting is now documented as: scsi-vhci-failover-override = "DataCoreVirtual Disk", "f_sym"; scsi-vhci-failover-override = "DataCoreSANsymphony", "f_sym"; scsi-vhci-failover-override = "DataCoreSANmelody", "f_sym"; Existing users that have never had to upgrade from either SANsymphony 7 or SANmelody 3 can ignore adding these additional lines. Use Solaris's 'format' command and then the 'inquiry' option from the menu to obtain the DataCore Virtual Disk's SCSI Information (including the Vital Product Data (VPD) that will determine if you need to add these additional lines or not). Added List of qualified Oracle Solaris Versions Added Oracle Solaris version February 2016 SANsymphony-V 8.x and all versions of SANsymphony 9.x before PSP4 Update 4 are now End of Life. Please see: End of Life Notifications April 2015 Added List of qualified Oracle Solaris Versions - Notes on qualification This section has been updated and new information added regarding the definitions of all qualified, unqualified and not supported labels. A new section on Oracle Solaris versions that are no longer in development has also been added at the end of this section. Added Host Settings All Versions of Oracle Solaris SCSI Disk Setting A new entry in the sd.conf/ssd.conf file (depending on your architecture) is required: sd-config-list ="DataCoreVirtual Disk", "retries-busy:60"; March 2015 Host Settings Configuring MPxIO support for DataCore Virtual Disks Oracle Solaris 10.x and 11.x An edit in the scsi_vhci.conf file is required in the Load balancing global configuration section: load-balance="none"; February 2015 List of qualified Oracle Solaris Versions Solaris 10.x is now qualified with SANsymphony-V 10.x (also with Oracle Solaris Cluster 3.x) using non-alua settings. Note: iscsi is still not considered qualified at this time; all qualified versions are with Fibre Channel only. Page 17

18 Previous changes 2014 and earlier December 2014 List of qualified Oracle Solaris Versions Footnotes have been added with additional information about supported Oracle Solaris Cluster configurations with the different versions of the base operating system. November 2014 List of qualified Solaris Versions the table include Solaris Not Supported has now been changed to mean explicitly Not Supported for Mirrored or Dual Virtual Disks. Single Virtual Disks are now always considered supported. Host Settings Oracle Solaris 10.x - Configuring MPxIO support for DataCore Virtual Disks The required edit for the scsi_vhci.conf file was not clear enough. It previously said to edit the "defaults" section. This was not accurate enough and so the description and example has been updated to say to edit the "device-type-scsioptions-list" section. Oracle Solaris 11.x - Configuring MPxIO support for DataCore Virtual Disks The required edit for the scsi_vhci.conf file was not clear enough. It previously said to edit the "defaults" section. This was not accurate enough and so the description and example has been updated to say to edit the "scsi-vhci-failoveroverride" section. Added an additional Note to run the stmsboot e command to enable Multipathing (including a reference to Oracle s own SAN Configuration and Multipathing Guide) August 2014 This document combines all of DataCore s Oracle Solaris-related information from older Technical Bulletins into a single document including: Technical Bulletin 3: "Oracle/SUN Hosts with StorEdge SAN Foundation Software with Traffic Manager" Technical Bulletin 8: "Formatting Host s File Systems on Virtual Disks created from Disk Pools" Technical Bulletin 11: "Disk Timeout Settings on Hosts" Technical Bulletin 16: "Reclaiming Space in Disk Pools" Added Which Distributions are qualified? Added new tables to show which versions are explicitly qualified, unqualified and not supported with either SANsymphony-V 8.x or 9.x, and if the configuration is with or without ALUA enabled Hosts. Note that the minimum requirement for SANsymphony-V 8.x is now 8.1 PSP1 Update 4 to guarantee expected behavior for qualified versions of Oracle Solaris Oracle Solaris 11 has now been added. Appendix A This section gives more detail on the Preferred Server and Preferred Path settings with regard to how it may affect a Host. Appendix B This section incorporates information regarding "Reclaiming Space in Disk Pools" (from Technical Bulletin 16) that is specific to Oracle Solaris Hosts. Host Settings - Improved explanations to most of the required Host Settings and DataCore Server Settings generally. Technical Bulletin 3: "Oracle/SUN Hosts with StorEdge SAN Foundation Software with Traffic Manager" July 2013 Removed all references to SANmelody as this product is now end of life. How to determine the Active IO Path in the troubleshooting section. July 2012 Update steps to allow for the product ID to be used Page 18

19 Previous changes July 2012 Added SANsymphony-V 9.x. No additional Appserver/Host changes required. April 2012 DataCore Server and Host minimum requirements. Removed all references to End of Life SANsymphony and SANmelody versions that are no longer supported as of December copyright. DataCore Server and Host minimum requirements. DataCore Server and Host configuration settings. January 2011 Added note for load-balance=none. June 2010 Not supported for iscsi Failover. Added Oracle Solaris 10. July 2007 Initial publication of Technical Bulletin. Tested on Solaris 9 and STMS version Page 19

20 The authority on real-time data Copyright 2018 by DataCore Software Corporation. All rights reserved. DataCore, the DataCore logo and SANsymphony are trademarks of DataCore Software Corporation. Other DataCore product or service names or logos referenced herein are trademarks of DataCore Software Corporation. All other products, services and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. ALTHOUGH THE MATERIAL PRESENTED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS BELIEVED TO BE ACCURATE, IT IS PROVIDED AS IS AND USERS MUST TAKE ALL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE USE OR APPLICATION OF THE PRODUCTS DESCRIBED AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENT. NEITHER DATACORE NOR ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED REPRESENTATION, WARRANTY OR ENDORSEMENT REGARDING, AND SHALL HAVE NO LIABILITY FOR, THE USE OR APPLICATION OF ANY DATACORE OR THIRD PARTY PRODUCTS OR THE OTHER INFORMATION REFERRED TO IN THIS DOCUMENT. ALL SUCH WARRANTIES (INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND AGAINST HIDDEN DEFECTS) AND LIABILITY ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. No part of this document may be copied, reproduced, translated or reduced to any electronic medium or machinereadable form without the prior written consent of DataCore Software Corporation