Q: Some blogs could allow one to conclude that there won't be any explicit ssd params in the future, and rather than this, sd will be used exclusively. Does this mean that the two stacks will be merged?

A: I am not aware of any changes in support for ssd params. I think they will continue to exist.

Hans-Paul Drumm - May 29, 2007 Back to top

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Q: I have intermittent SCSI errors on my brand-new FCAL installation. What tools are available to help diagnose the problem?

A: Diagnosis of an error is specific to the configuration: You need to make sure that the configuration you are using is supported, you are running the latest software and patches, etc. Also, sometimes there are storage array-specific settings you need to make, e.g. the HDS 99xx series of arrays require /etc/system setting to adjust the throttle and timeout values. These settings are normally documented in the storage release notes.

As for tools, one excellent observability tool the Solaris OS has is DTrace. You can use the built-in io provider to track time taken by an I/O and various other pieces of information. More detail can be found in the Solaris Dynamic Tracing Guide: http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/817-6223/6mlkidllc?a=view

The OpenSolaris community has also written DTrace scripts for the same purpose. One such script that I am aware of is from Chris Gerhard: http://blogs.sun.com/chrisg/entry/scsi_d_script.

Sam Horrocks - May 30, 2007 Back to top

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Q: What are the actual limits for "LUNs per Target", "Number of Targets" and "Number of MPxIO nodes" supported by Leadville in conjunction with emlxs and qlc drivers?

A: The limits listed below are based on the latest drivers in Solaris 8/9 patches and Solaris 10 updates. The driver for QLogic is 'qlc' and for Emulex is 'emlxs'. Also, these limits apply to the products that are supported by Sun.

The LUN limits are on a per target port basis and not system wide.

• LUN limits:
  • Qlogic: 16K per target
  • Emulex: No limit based on LUNs
• Target limits:
  • Emulex: 507 targets per HBA Port
  • QLogic:
    • 8 targets for the low-cost HBA (QLA210 aka Prism)
    • 256 for the 2G HBAs
    • 2048 for the 4G HBAs

I should also mention that we are fixing a bug in the latest SFS release in this area. In the absence of this fix, the number of targets gets limited to 127. With this fix, the number of targets is limited by the HBA. The bug report can be viewed at http://bugs.opensolaris.org/view_bug.do?bug_id=6500300.

mon - June 03, 2007 Back to top

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Q: What are the most important considerations in tuning an NFS server with a large FC storage pool?

A: I am aware of no Fibre Channel tunables that are specific to NFS. There are a few generic things you can do to gain performance. The actual gain will vary based on the type of load and amount of traffic.

The first thing you can do is to keep the Fibre Channel HBAs on a different PCI bus than your network card. This will help ensure that there is no contention between those two when the load is high. The second thing to do is to use a multipathing solution like MPxIO to increase reliability and performance. I have also seen some folks use two single-channel FC cards instead of one dual-channel FC card so that there is no single point of failure. Lastly, use ZFS as your local file system so that you can take advantage of built-in features like mirroring, RAID-Z and so on.

Jay Edwards - June 03, 2007 Back to top

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Q: Considering HBA vendors, I'd like to know which driver is more mature, the Emulex 'emlxs' driver or QLogic 'qlc' driver.

A: It is hard to give a generic answer to that question, mainly because the drivers are always evolving. All of us (Sun, QLogic and Emulex) are always adding new features to our software offerings. These may look like single drivers, but both 'emlxs' and 'qlc' support a variety of different HBAs. 'qlc' was created in the late 1990s and it only supported private loop with 1G QLogic HBAs. Then fabric support was added and then 2G HBA support was added to it. Around 2003 is when 'emlxs' came into existence with fabric and 2G HBA support. Since then both Emulex and QLogic have been adding support for newer HBAs to their drivers.

Both of the vendors follow very similar test and qualification processes and have very similar HBA offerings. Their web sites have white papers on why one is better than the other but beyond that it's hard to make a generic statement. Also, I have seen customers who prefer 'qlc' over 'emlxs' and customers who prefer 'emlxs' over 'qlc'.

June 08, 2007 Back to top

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Q: How can I determine which path is active to a third-party symmetric dual-path disk without load-balancing? luxadm reports both ports as ONLINE. But in this configuration only one port can transfer the data. How can I change the active port?

A: I am assuming that you are running the latest update of Solaris 10 and you are using MPxIO with no load balancing. In that case you can use the -X option of iostat (with I/Os active) to find out which path is being used. Then you can use the mpathadm command to disable the active path. This will force MPxIO to start using the alternate path. See the man page for mpathadm for more information and command syntax.

June 13, 2007 Back to top

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Q: How can I implement static binding for tape on HBA QLA2462 on the Solaris 10 OS to avoid a SCSI address change (b.t.l)?

A: You can use the /etc/delink.tab file for that purpose. Please see Chapter 8 of Solaris Fibre Channel Storage Configuration and Multipathing Administration Guide at http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-0139.

July 20, 2006 Back to top

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Q: When using zones on a fiber switch, we have to know the WWN for the fiber controller connecting to it. Is there a way to get this info from the Solaris Operating System?

A: If you are on the Solaris 10 OS or above, you can use fcinfo hba-port.

If you are on a Solaris version less than 10, then there is no clean way of getting the HBA WWN. If you are using Emulex HBAs, you can try going through /var/adm/messages, because they used to print their WWN in the messages file during startup. Otherwise, you can go through the output of prtconf -pv. The WWNs are exported as prom properties, which you can read using that command. But it is not easy to parse the output of prtconf.

August 08, 2006 Back to top

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Q: Are there any CLI utilities available for the Sun StorEdge 9990 System or any of the Sun StorEdge 9900 series that are similar to SCLI for the Sun StorEdge 3510 FC Array allowing for inband management via the Fibre Channel connection?

A: Sun has no utility for the Sun StorEdge 9900 series similar to Sun StorEdge Configuration Command Line Interface (SCCLI). But I don't know if Hitachi Data Systems might have one; you might want to check with them.

August 08, 2006 Back to top

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Q: When will there be an official patch released for the "Leadville" drivers in the Solaris 10 OS? I've been living with a point fix update (support emailed a new fcp file) since February, when a system crash showed that we needed the fix. Will the next Solaris 10 release in 2007 have updated FC drivers?

A: What has happened recently is that the patch numbers have changed. Also "Leadville drivers" is no longer a single patch. The reason is some recent open source activity by HBA vendors. I have included below a list of all recent patches for the Solaris 10 OS for both x86 and SPARC platforms. Also the upcoming Solaris 10 OS update is scheduled to have all the latest patches.

Patch list for SPARC platforms:

119090-24 SunOS 5.10: Sun iSCSI Device Driver and Utilities
SUNWiscsir
SUNWiscsiu


119130-33 SunOS 5.10: Sun Fibre Channel Device Drivers
SUNWfcip    (Rejuvenated into 125166-xx and 125184-xx)
SUNWfcmdb
SUNWfcp
SUNWfcsm
SUNWfctl
SUNWjfca
SUNWjfcau
SUNWqlc
SUNWqlcu

119470-11 SunOS 5.10: Sun Enterprise Network Array Firmware
and Utilities
SUNWluxop
SUNWluxopr

119555-04 SunOS 5.10: Software to Support QLogic Ultra3 SCSI
Host Bus Adapters
SUNWqus  (Update 03)

119974-08 SunOS 5.10: fp Plug-In for cfgadm
SUNWcfpl

120182-06 SunOS 5.10: Sun Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter Library
SUNWfchba

120222-20 SunOS 5.10: Emulex-Sun LightPulse Fibre Channel
Adapter Driver
SUNWemlxs
SUNWemlxu

120346-08 SunOS 5.10: Common Fibre Channel HBA API and Host Bus
Adapter Libraries
SUNWcfcl
SUNWcfclr
SUNWfchba

120348-02 SunOS 5.10: Fibre Channel HBA Port Utility
SUNWfcprt

125166-02 SunOS 5.10: Qlogic ISP Fibre Channel Device Driver
125166-04 SunOS 5.10: Qlogic ISP Fibre Channel Device Driver
125166-05 SunOS 5.10: Qlogic ISP Fibre Channel Device Driver
SUNWqlc     (Requires 119130-33)
SUNWqlcu

125184-03 SunOS 5.10: Sun Fibre Channel Device Drivers
SUNWfcip    (Requires 119130-33)
SUNWfcmdb
SUNWfcp
SUNWfctl

125388-01 SunOS 5.10: SNIA Multipath Management API and
Multipathing Utilities
SUNWmpathadmr

126530-01 SunOS 5.10: SNIA Multipath Management API Libraries
and scsi_vhci Driver
SUNWmpapi
SUNWmpapir
SUNWmpsvplr

Patch list for x86 platforms:

119091-25 SunOS 5.10_x86: Sun iSCSI Device Driver and Utilities
SUNWiscsir
SUNWiscsiu

119131-33 SunOS 5.10_x86: Sun Fibre Channel Device Drivers
SUNWfcip    (Rejuvenated into 125165-xx and 125185-xx)
SUNWfcmdb
SUNWfcp
SUNWfcsm
SUNWfctl
SUNWqlc
SUNWqlcu

119471-09 SunOS 5.10_x86: Sun Enterprise Network Array Firmware
and Utilities
SUNWluxop

119975-07 SunOS 5.10_x86: fp Plug-In for cfgadm
SUNWcfpl

120183-06 SunOS 5.10_x86: Sun Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter
Library
SUNWfchba

120223-20 SunOS 5.10_x86: Emulex-Sun LightPulse Fibre Channel
Adapter Driver
SUNWemlxs
SUNWemlxu

120347-08 SunOS 5.10_x86: Common Fibre Channel HBA API and Host
Bus Adapter Libraries
SUNWcfcl
SUNWcfclr
SUNWfchba

120349-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: Fibre Channel HBA Port Utility
SUNWfcprt

125165-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: Qlogic ISP Fibre Channel Device Driver
SUNWqlc     (Requires 119131-33)
SUNWqlcu

125185-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: Sun Fibre Channel Device Drivers
SUNWfcip    (Requires 119131-33)
SUNWfcmdb
SUNWfcp
SUNWfctl

125389-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: SNIA Multipath Management API and
Multipathing Utilities
SUNWmpathadmr

126529-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: SNIA Multipath Management API
Libraries and scsi_vhci Driver
SUNWmpapi
SUNWmpapir
SUNWmpsvplr

August 08, 2006 Back to top

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