Datastore stay connected although FC links are disconnected - ESX4 U2

[rtouillet]

Hi all,

I have a question regarding FC connection to datastores. I explain my problem.

I presented a datastore from an IBM DS5020 to an ESX 4U2 farm with FC Qlogic ISP2532 8Gb adapters with the last driver version from Qlogic. I made no modifications on the HBA’s Bios. Everything works fine. I launch a VM from this datastore (MS w2k3 R2).

The problem is when I disconnect all my FC links behind the ESX hosting the VM. The datastore stay connected (but all paths are dead) and my VM just freeze. I wait more than 10 minutes without errors or HA actions. When I re-plug FC links the VM continue working perfectly without crashing!

Is it a normal behavior? Do I need to change anything on the ESX/HBA/other to crash the VM and restart it (HA).

Thanks for your help.

Regards

Renaud

[athlon_crazy]

HA normally occur when one of the HA host went down or when there is network isolation and afaik, FC disconnection normally doesn't cause HA to kick-in.

I believe, ESX failed or take longer time to update your datastore status why it's still showing as connected.

[rtouillet]

Thanks for the explanation.

But do you know if there's some ESX parameters that we can set/change to modify the behavior? Some king of timeout or anything else?

Thank you!

Regards,

Renaud

[athlon_crazy]

for HA better understanding

HA advance option

[rtouillet]

Thanks for the information. But it doesn't explain why if I remove FC links behind my ESX VMs just freeze but don't crash. And why nothing is visible on the vCenter except the dead path. What is the standard behavior if you remove access from you ESX to your FC storage?

Thanks!