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DS4000 SRM issues posted: Sep 4, 2008 1:48 PM

Click to view KrishnaR's profile Enthusiast 51 posts since
Sep 5, 2007
I'm starting this threadto hear back from users and field on any experiences with DS4000 and SRM. Particularly interested in any issues or problems encountered. I've been working with SRM and DS4000 since beta and can try to help resolve any problems that've come up. I'm also working on an SRM guide but can't give a date on it yet.

Re: DS4000 SRM issues

1. Sep 4, 2008 11:24 PM in response to: KrishnaR
Click to view Mike_Laverick's profile Virtuoso 4,064 posts since
Jan 5, 2004
KrishnaR wrote:
I'm starting this threadto hear back from users and field on any experiences with DS4000 and SRM. Particularly interested in any issues or problems encountered. I've been working with SRM and DS4000 since beta and can try to help resolve any problems that've come up. I'm also working on an SRM guide but can't give a date on it yet.

Can you say more about the guide will include...?

Regards
Mike

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?p=584

Re: DS4000 SRM issues

3. Sep 5, 2008 11:29 AM in response to: KrishnaR
Click to view Mike_Laverick's profile Virtuoso 4,064 posts since
Jan 5, 2004
Sounds good...

Do you work for IBM by chance - or a reseller?

Just curious... If you do make this guide/whitepaper - please tell me... and I try will include a reference to it in my book on SRM...

mikelaverick AT rtfm-ed DOT co DOT uk

Regards
Mike

Re: DS4000 SRM issues

5. Sep 30, 2008 2:50 PM in response to: KrishnaR
Click to view TMeissner's profile Novice 8 posts since
Jul 26, 2005
Hi - thanks for starting this thread ...

Thru the sales channel you received an error log from our eval. We were getting the following error: "Error: Invalid XML returned from storage array management script: Failed to get node ReturnCode." Your response to our logs was ... "it looks like the LSI SRA is returning a misspelled element in its response to the testFailover/start command" You suggested P#8 would fix this issue. Currently, there is only one SRA for the DS4000 available for download. The version I am using is 1.00.35.03. Does this version of the SRA have the fix or should I be looking someplace else?

thanks!!

ToddM

I attempted to correct the problem by reloading SRM. I was not surprised to sse the same error. ... attached is my latest log file. Message was edited by: TMeissner

Attachments:

Re: DS4000 SRM issues

7. Oct 3, 2008 9:44 AM in response to: KrishnaR
Click to view TMeissner's profile Novice 8 posts since
Jul 26, 2005

I attended a User Group Meeting where another storage vendor demonstrated SRM. In their presentation, they implied that during their testing, a "clone" was made of the LUN to be able to isolate the VMFS volume during the test and still keep the replication going. I was wondering if the SRA for the DS4000 is doing something like this. If so does that implied that the DS4000 on the recovery side needs to have a FlashCopy Feature Code? If so, what error would I see if the feature code is missing?

Thanks!!

Re: DS4000 SRM issues

8. Oct 6, 2008 6:21 AM in response to: TMeissner
Click to view Mike_Laverick's profile Virtuoso 4,064 posts since
Jan 5, 2004
TMeissner wrote:

I attended a User Group Meeting where another storage vendor demonstrated SRM. In their presentation, they implied that during their testing, a "clone" was made of the LUN to be able to isolate the VMFS volume during the test and still keep the replication going. I was wondering if the SRA for the DS4000 is doing something like this. If so does that implied that the DS4000 on the recovery side needs to have a FlashCopy Feature Code? If so, what error would I see if the feature code is missing?

Thanks!!


I wouldn't be suprised. In my research most SRA do this - the only one which doesn't appear to make a snapshot "on-the-fly" is LHN (Adam is that right?!?!?). I'm not sure of the requirements for FlashCopy. What does the README or PDF file say there requirements are...???

Does IBM have redbook on SRA/SRM???

Regards
Mike

Re: DS4000 SRM issues

10. Oct 7, 2008 12:00 PM in response to: KrishnaR
Click to view TMeissner's profile Novice 8 posts since
Jul 26, 2005

Thanks for the response....

As for the "ReturnCode" error .... v1.00.35.03 of the SRA for the DS4700 has an error. In the command.pl and the command.pm files there is string value, $XML_RETURNCODE = "Returncode"; This needs to be changed to "ReturnCode" with a captial C. I made the change to the script and it fixed the XML error that I was getting. I am assuming that the SRA version will be updated on the VMware site.

Now my next error in the logs are that there is an invalid snapshot of the volume. I am assuming that this is really a flashcopy issue. We are working with IBM to get the proper Flashcopy feature code activation on the recovery side DS-4700.

Re: DS4000 SRM issues

12. Oct 7, 2008 12:27 PM in response to: KrishnaR
Click to view TMeissner's profile Novice 8 posts since
Jul 26, 2005

Item 2)

Using IBM DS4000/FastT Storage Manager, you can define Host Groups to quickly map the VMFS LUNS to a group of ESX servers at the same time. When a LUN is mapped to a Host group up can assign the LUN ID from 0 to xxx. If you map a LUN to an individual server you can also assign the LUN IS from 0 to xxx. The problem comes when the are identical LUN IDs used between a Host Group mapping and individual hosts. The Storage Manager application allows this and somehow can tell the difference between Host Group and an individual host. I think the SRA requests the host mappings and sees two mappings that use the same LUN IDs. It is not aware that one of those ID's is a part of a Host Group.

My workaround was to change the LUN Id's for the DS4700 to insure they were unique. After making the change we no longer received the Duplicate ID's error.

Thanks

Re: DS4000 SRM issues

13. Oct 7, 2008 1:06 PM in response to: TMeissner
Click to view Mike_Laverick's profile Virtuoso 4,064 posts since
Jan 5, 2004
Can I say what an interesting thread this has been/is....

A couple of observations:

1. An SRA which has a case-sensitive error in the perl script is a pretty bad show...

2. I don't recall seeing a SRA for the DS4000 being available in the download - perhaps I was observant enough.

3. I think some (not all) of the vendors have been a bit remiss in the documentation. It kind of reminds me of the early days of VCB. When we were very much left to own skills to resolve problems. Frequently the PDFs available assume very good knowledge of the storage - which is not very helpful to the average VMware guy who is not a storage expert. I'm quite happy to put myself in this camp - I don't like to exaggerate my knowledge on these forums!

I think what need is more "Getting Started with..." style documentation - written by people who are not pro-storage guys....

4. PDF guide to DS4000. I'm very close to releasing my book on SRM. I've hard copy on the way to me. As long as it looks ok, I will be releasing it on LULU. We can also use LULU to distribute free PDFs. If any one want to share what they have learned from this - I would be happy to host these PDFs on my LULU account. There's a cost for me to do this - but I'm happy to do this - as it's helpful to the community and a helpful free supplement to my book....

Regards
Mike

Re: DS4000 SRM issues

14. Oct 8, 2008 2:47 PM in response to: KrishnaR
Click to view TMeissner's profile Novice 8 posts since
Jul 26, 2005

Our flashcopy on the recovery side is working using the default feature code that limits us to two flashcopies. I am just working with a single test LUN. I guess I'm stuck with the generic error:

#1] 2008-10-07:: 10:45:12:INFO:failover:exit failover.....
1
1 Error:
1
1 ",
1 msg = "Message exceeds database maximum string length."
1 }
1] ,
1 msg = "Message exceeds database maximum string length."
1 }
2008-10-07 10:45:26.071 'Cancel-RecoveryContext-16-17-Task' 3848 verbose Task destroyed

I've attached our log for the error. Any insight would be appreciated. If you think this is a bug in the SRA code ... that OK, just let me know. I'm getting tired of chasing this one. Is there any other information that would be helpful?

Attachments:
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