Home Forums OS X Server and Client Discussion Questions and Answers Emulex switch (non-XSan), XServe, XRAID drives not mounting on reboot

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  • #369187
    OkiKowai
    Participant

    I have two XServes, two XRAIDs, and a Tape Library (Exabyte 221L FC).

    Based on the documentation from Apple and Emulex’s website, we have them setup in different zones like so:

    ZONE 1
    XServe1 (Intel) Port 17 and 18
    XRAID Port 1 and 2

    Zone2
    XServe2 (G5) Port 20
    XRAID Port 4 and 5
    Tape Drive Port 6

    The Tape Library connects directly to the other Fibre port on XServe2

    The problem is this. Whenever we have to restart either XServe, the XRAIDs do not mount automatically. Neither does the Tape Drive for XServe2. We have to pull the connector out of the Fibre Switch and reseat it. Then the drives typically mount (as does the Tape Drive). I say typically because sometimes it takes a few reboots and several reseatings to get this to work, but rarely does this occur.

    I have recently been told by TOLIS Group, that their preferred setup would be to put each of the XServe2’s fibre ports into the switch and have the XRAID and the Tape Library & Drive on seperate zones. So that it would be something like XServe Port 20 & XRAID Port 4 and 5, and XServe Port 19 & Tape Library/Drive Port 6 and 7.

    So I guess you could say I have two questions. What do we need to do to get the drives to automatically mount? We are running Extensis Portfolio and it requires the drives be there when that process starts up, otherwise we have to restart it. Not an easy thing to do since it doesn’t exactly have a great GUI interface.

    The other question is, how do you recommend we setup the switch with regards to zones to make things run the smoothest? In this case, we have to rescan our tapes every time we change tapes and it is possible that all of the above is related to this. If we don’t rescan the tapes, backups typically fail. *sigh* But this is a side issue, and we can further investigate this once I have a better idea of the two above questions. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Keith

    #369241
    danomatic
    Participant

    I have fairly little experience with Emulex switches, and have worked mostly with Q-Logic ones. There is a setting in those ones to have Initiator ports (compu’s) interupt traffic on the other ports of the switch when switched off/on. The setting in the Q-logic boxes is called ‘IO Streamgard’, but the technology behind it is refered to as ‘RSCN suppression’. You might want to look for something in this angle with you emulex switch.

    #369345
    OkiKowai
    Participant

    Unfortunately from my research, Emulex switches are FC-AL type and the QLogic are FC-SW type. So they work differently. All the settings I have are setup as they should be based on Apple’s website and what little is on Emulex’s. We are going to look one last time for updated firmware, last time I couldn’t find any firmware updates at all. (not even something saying there are no updates).

    The settings that I am curious about are the settings regarding notifications. The way it is described the Target ports (XRAIDs, etc) should be setup to only send notification messages and Initiator ports (X-Serve) should be setup to only receive messages. The reason I am curious about this is that when you restart the server, it is not able to tell the XRAID that it is down or that it is back up. However, I know I have heard of the troubles that can be caused if open the notifications up completely between the two, but it was not fully described what those troubles were. *sigh* So I am wondering whether or not to try the changes or not.

    I am caught in a quandry because to call Apple and get support on this will cost the $700 Enterprise support fee. I have no idea if there is a wrong setting, something wrong that can be cleared up, or the switch itself is actually defective. This has been really frustrating. If we hadn’t had some problems when we first setup all the other things, we might have gotten the support early on when we were still in the first 30 days, but of course that didn’t happen.

    Well if anyone has any other ideas, I would be very happy to hear them. Thanks Danomatic for your response, it at least gave me some hope for a little bit. And was still better than nothing.

    #369347
    ifitz
    Participant

    What version of the Emulex Switch are you using?
    At one of my sites i have an almost identical set up, in which we were using the Emulex 1000 series. Our Apple reps have “Verbally” admitted that zoning the Emulex 1000 will not work . I was seeing the same behavior as you are explaining and were told by Apple to to reseat the FC, memory etc…. We eventually just took the Emulex out of the picture and sent it back.
    The solution that we finally got working was to direct connect the XServes to the XRAID’s and direct attach, from the second port, to the Excabyte 221l FC. We then set our jobs to run from the XServe attached to the Excabyte and attach to the second XRAID across the network. All of our drives mount without any issue and our backups run fine.
    Ian

    #369451
    OkiKowai
    Participant

    I will have to look to see if there is a specific version. But the switch is the Emulex 375. It is the 20-port switch. Now I am regretting completely not pushing on this with Apple while it was still in the first 30 days. If we hadn’t had other issues we were dealing with which were more important, we would have. *sigh* I guess we are stuck now. The only other solution I can think of is getting one of the newer 4-port Fibre cards. But like alot of things, it costs money to do that. Sure the company in question has the money, but no one likes to shell out a thousand dollars when they already invested several thousand on a fibre switch. Thank you for your response. It is good to know that others had the same problems. Although quite frustrating that Apple just told you to reseat to fix the issue. I will keep plugging away at this, maybe even contact Emulex directly and complain. Who knows, it might get us somewhere.

    Keith

    P.S. The delay in responses has been partly caused by the birth of my second son. 8) Which is a good thing, but it has meant that I have been busy with this right before the birth and now after. Hopefully if someone else comes up with a good suggestion I will respond quicker. Thanks again for everyone’s help.

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