HBA path disappear in LUN properties during fail-over testing

[Windzhou]

I have two Qlogic HBA cards in ESX 3.0.2 server, and both card connect to IBM SAN. In normal circumstance in all the LUN properties page two path are displayed in the paths subsection, with one actice and another one standby

When i do HBA Fial-over testing by disconnect one HBA card from the ESX server, most the LUN the in the properties pages will show total two paths, with one active and another one dead (broken)

However, some LUN property will show only one path in active state, the other path will disappear.

The HBA fail-over is successful.

Customer want to know why the there is difference, and if the configuration is correct. Any one encounter this behavior before? is there anything wrong, and how to correct it? or is it normal and how to explain this to customer?

[christianZ]

Saw such view problems when the vmhbas haven't the same number on all hosts (eg. vmhba1,3 on 1st host vmhba1,2 on 2nd, vmhba1,3 on 3rd).

[Windzhou]

Hi, ChristianZ

Thanks for your reply. But this happens only on some of the LUNs in the same ESX server, and for the same LUN, it will not happen on all the ESX servers accessing the LUN.

How to rectify the problem, or is it normal?

I can see the system working fine, and HBA fail-over also works fine. So is it really a problem?

Best Regards

[christianZ]

Check if your all vmhbas have the same number in all hosts; as I could see that was only view problem, but who knows?

[jhanekom]

Also, the graphical view of things have a reputation for not always reflecting the state of things accurately.

Does the path also disappear if you view them with "esxcfg-mpath -l" on the hosts themselves?

[Windzhou]

Hi, Jhanekom

Yes i agree sometimes the GUI view is not accurately, but I can't just do it now as the System is already put in Production. But during our test earlier, we repeated several times, the same thing happen.

Assume the esxcfg-mth -l one LUN also disappear, whether there is any problem for the HBA multipath?

Interesting is that for some LUNs it shows total two path with one broken, and other LUNs it only shows total one path - another just disappear

Will try to schedule to do it soon, and using the console to check

[Windzhou]

The path will show "broken" after the HBA was disconnected. and after click rescan in the HBA adapter tab, in some LUN the path will still show "broken" but in some other LUNs the path just disappear. The GUI view here is right.