This README file contains the latest information about installing IBM FAStT Storage Manager version 8.41 for AIX. Refer to the IBM Support Web Site or CD for the installation and support guide. Last Update: 12/18/2003 Note: The IBM TotalStorage™ FAStT Storage Manager version 8.41 for AIX software package is required for managing FAStT storage servers that are connecting to the FAStT EXP100 drive expansion enclosures. The controller firmware and NVSRAM files that are part of this release are required to be loaded in the FAStT storage server enabling it to recognize the FAStT EXP100 drive expansion enclosures. The FAStT storage server controller firmware and NVSRAM files that are part of the IBM TotalStorage™ FAStT Storage Manager version 8.41 for AIX release should not be loaded into the FAStT storage server connecting to FAStT EXP700 and EXP500 drive expansion enclosures. Please use the FAStT storage server controller firmware and NVSRAM files that were part of the IBM TotalStorage™ FAStT Storage Manager version 8.4 for AIX or the IBM TotalStorage™ FAStT Storage Manager version 8.3x for AIX software releases instead. ======================================================================= CONTENTS -------- 1.0 Overview 2.0 Change History 3.0 Usage Notes - AIX Platforms 4.0 WEB Sites and Support Phone Number 5.0 Trademarks and Notices 6.0 Disclaimer ======================================================================= 1.0 Overview ------------ 1.1 Overview ------------ This IBM Storage Manager release includes the IBM FAStT Storage Manager version 8.41 for AIX. In addition, it includes the controller firmware version 05.41.xx.xx and the latest NVSRAM files for IBM machine types 1722 and 1742-900, for use with the FAStT EXP100 SATA disk drive enclosure. AIX host attachment to the 1722 (FAStT600) and the 1742-90U/90X (FAStT900) requires the additional purchase of an IBM FAStT900/FAStT600 Host Kit Option. The IBM AIX Host Kit options contain the required IBM licensing to attach an AIX Host System to the FAStT900 or FAStT600. Please contact your IBM service representative or IBM resellers for purchasing information. The AIX CD-ROM directory contains the documentation and files necessary for installing the IBM FAStT Storage Manager Version 8.41. The "IBM FAStT Storage Manager Version 8.4x for AIX and UNIX environments Installation and Support Guide" is also available on IBM's Support Web Site as a downloadable Portable Document Format (PDF) file. Also, please read the FAStT EXP100 Storage Expansion Unit Release Notes before using Storage Manager version 8.41. 1.2 Limitations (not AIX limitations, but FAStT/Storage Manager limitations) ----------------------------------------------------------- 1. Storage Manager prompts you for a password if all hard disk drives are removed from the storage subsystem. After removing all drives from a storage subsystem (or not powering on drives and only the controller), the IBM FAStT Storage Manager software will prompt you for a password when trying to start the software or trying to perform protected operations. Any password entered will fail. Password information is stored on a reserved area of each hard disk drive on the storage subsystem. Each drive stores a mirrored copy of the password data. When there are no drives in the storage subsystem, the storage management software does not find the password data when you attempt password protected operations. Add one drive to the storage subsystem and retry the operation. 2. Auto LUN/Array Transfer is not supported. If a controller fails over arrays to the alternate controller and the failed controller is replaced and brought back online, the arrays do not automatically transfer to the preferred controller. This must be done manually by redistributing arrays. 3. If the controller in the IBM FAStT Storage Server with firmware 05.4x.xx.xx is connected to a SAN with more than 256 host connections per controller port, that can log into the controllers, one must either use the switch zoning function or rearrange the SAN connections so that only the maximum number of host connections can be seen and log into the controller. 4. If you define a large number of arrays, you may not be able to right-click a logical drive and get a pop-up menu in the Physical View of the Subsystem management window. The workaround is to use the Logical Drive pull-down menu to select the logical drive options. 5. Dynamically changing the cache read ahead multiplier setting via the storage manager client may result in an error message indicating the operation has failed. Despite the error message, the request to change the cache read ahead multiplier will remain queued to the controllers and will eventually complete when I/O activity to the storage subsystem has subsided. In order to avoid the error message and any delays in the cache read ahead multiplier value changing, it is recommended to change the cache read ahead multiplier when the subsystem is in a quiesced state. 6. No IOs are allowed during the duration that the EXP100 ESMs are being updated with new firmware, including lustering reservation checking IOs. 7. The FAStT strorage server when configured with the FAStT EXP100 SATA Drive Expansion Unit is currently reporting a higher frequency of informational events such as Destination Driver Events (DDEs) and FibreChannel link up/down events ... in the FAStT Controller event log compared to the FAStT strorage server configured with Fibre Channel drives. Slower response times of SATA disk drives compared to Fibre Channel disk drives cause higher I/O retries from the FAStT storage server controllers, resulting in a greater number of informational events logged. In addition, the number of information events reported in the FAStT strorage server event log will also grow in proportion to the increase in I/Os to the Logical Drives. In all cases, the FAStT storage server controller will always successfully service the timeout I/O on the subsequent retries. 1.3 Enhancements ---------------- * Minor edits and updates (12/16/03) * Initial release for base pSeries/AIX support on AIX (11/21/03) v5.1.0, and v5.2.0 1.4 Fixes ---------------- 1.5 Prerequisites ----------------- The following pSeries & RS/6000 Hardware Platforms are supported for attachment to the FAStT600 and FAStT900 with FAStT Storage Manager 8.41: Machine Type Model# pSeries Name ------------------------------------------------------------ 7013 S70 7013 S7A 7015 S70 7015 S7A 7017 S70 7017 S7A 7017 S80 7017 S85 pSeries 680 7025 6F0 pSeries 620 7025 6F1 pSeries 620 7025 F50 7025 F80 7026 6H0 pSeries 660 7026 6H1 pSeries 660 7026 6M1 pSeries 660 7026 H50 7026 H70 7026 H80 7026 B80 pSeries 640 7026 M80 7028 6C4 pSeries 630 7028 6E4 pSeries 630 7028 6C1 pSeries 610 7028 6E1 pSeries 610 7029 6C3 pSeries 615 7029 6C4 pSeries 615 7038 6M2 pSeries 650 7039 651 pSeries 655 7043 270 7040 671 pSeries 670 7040 681 pSeries 690 7044 170 7044 270 9076 PCI Nodes: FC 2050 332 Mhz SMP Thin Node FC 2051 332 Mhz SMP Wide Node FC 2052 POWER3 SMP Thin Node FC 2053 POWER3 SMP Wide Node FC 2054 POWER3 SMP HIGH Node FC 2055 SP Expansion I/O Unit FC 2056 375 Mhz POWER3 SMP Thin Node FC 2057 375 Mhz POWER3 SMP Wide Node FC 2058 375 Mhz POWER3 SMP High Node Platform: pSeries/AIX Recommended OS Levels: AIX 5.1, or 5.2 Multipath Driver: IBM AIX RDAC Driver (fcp.disk.array) and FC Protocol DD PTFs. AIX 5.2, Maintenance Level 2 (APAR IY48488), and the following AIX fileset versions: devices.fcp.disk.array 5.2.0.17 (PTF U495446, APAR IY51803) devices.pci.df1000f7 5.2.0.15 (PTF U495397, APAR IY48386) - *use this version only* AIX 5.1, Maintenance Level 5 (APAR IY48486) and the following AIX fileset versions: devices.fcp.disk.array 5.1.0.58 (PTF U495840, APAR IY51802) devices.pci.df1000f7 5.1.0.57 (PTF U495842, APAR IY49747) - *use this version only* * AIX PTF/APARs can be downloaded from: http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/server/aix.fdc Host Bus Adapter(s): IBM Feature Code 6227, 6228, or 6239 HBA Firmware Levels: FC 6227 - 3.30X1 FC 6228 - 3.91A1 FC 6239 - 1.00X5 * pSeries and RS/6000 adapter code can be downloaded from: http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/server/mdownload2/download.html 1.6 Dependencies ---------------- IBM FAStT Storage Manager version 8.41 requires IBM machine type 3542 or 3552 storage controllers that have at least firmware version 05.30.XX.XX. ======================================================================= 2.0 Change History ------------------ This is the latest release of IBM FAStT Storage Manager version 8.41 for AIX. 2.1 Key Features of IBM FAStT Storage Manager version 8.41 ---------------------------------------------------------- N/A 2.2 Code levels at time of release are as follows ------------------------------------------------- 1. Firmware versions: Appware and Snapware versions: a. For machine type 1722: Snapware 05.41.10.00 b. For machine type 1742-900: Appware 05.41.10.00 2. NVSRAM versions: a. For machine type 1722: N1722F600R840V01 b. For machine type 1742-900: N1742F900R841V02 3. Client versions: SMruntime: SMruntime.aix-08.40.65.00 SMclient: SMclient-AIX-08.41.G5.01 Refer to the http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/disk/fastt/index.html IBM web page for the latest information on supported switches and released code levels. ======================================================================= 3.0 Usage Notes and restrictions - AIX Platforms --------------------------------------------------- * It is important to set the queue depth to a correct size for AIX hosts. Having too large of a queue depth can result in lost filesystems and host panics. Please refer to the IBM FAStT Storage Manager Version 8.4x for UNIX and AIX Environments Installation and Support Guide for details. * Disabling Cache mirroring while the write-cache is permitted, but not recommended for most environments and applications. Loss of data could occur in the event of a controller failure (data in cache, but not written to disk). Refer to the Installation and Support Guide for further information. * To manage and configure the FAStT, the SM client, which uses the Java interface resident on the AIX host, must be used with a LAN attachment between the FAStT and the AIX platform (Out of Band management). Any host attached to the LAN with the SM client could also accomplish the management tasks. If In Band management (via the FC interface) is needed, this must be used on a separate host platform that supports the In-band agent software. * SCSI-3 Persistent Reservation is not supported on AIX with FAStT Storage Systems. This feature will be available in a future release of the AIX RDAC Driver (fcp.disk.array). * Each AIX host (server) can support 1 or 2 FAStT Partitions (or Host Groups), each with a maximum of 256 Logical Drives. * For most applications, AIX host attaches to FAStT storage servers using pairs of Fibre Channel adapters (HBA). For each adapter pair, one HBA must be configured to connect to controller "A" and the other to controller "B". Each HBA pair must be configured to connect to a single partition in a FAStT storage server or multiple FAStT Storage servers (fanout). To attach an AIX host to a single or multiple FAStT with two partitions, 2 HBA pairs must be used. * SAN Switch Zoning Rules: Each HBA within a host must be configured in a separate zone from other HBAs within that same host, when connected to the same FAStT controller port. In other words, only 1 HBA within a host can be configured in the same zone with given FAStT controller port. * For most Direct-attach applications, the connections of FAStT storage arrays on AIX should be configured with two HBAs for complete path availability. As such, dual-path configurations are restricted to the following: FAStT600 - one or two server configurations only (2 or 4 HBAs) Each HBA pair must be connected to both A & B host-side controller ports. FAStT900 - one or two server configurations only (2 or 4 HBAs) Each HBA pair must be connected to both A & B controllers. Only 1 connection on each host-side mini-hub can be used. * Single HBA configurations are allowed, but each single HBA configuration requires that both controllers in the FAStT be connected to the host. In a switch environment, both controllers must be connected to the switch within the same SAN zone as the HBA. In a direct-attach configurations, both controllers must be "daisy-chained" together. This can only be done on FAStT900. * Multiple host attachment to a host-side mini-hub is not supported. * Storage Partitions and the Default Host Group FAStT offers a premium feature called "Storage Partitioning" which enables users to associate a set of logical drives on a FAStT Storage Server that can only be accessed by specified hosts and host ports. This association of logical drives to a set of hosts and host ports is called a Storage Partition. The benefit of defining Storage Partitions is to allow controlled access to the logical drives on the FAStT Storage Server to only those hosts also defined in the Storage Partition. Without the use of Storage Partitioning, all logical drives appear within what is called the Default Host Group, and they can be accessed by any fibre channel initiator that has access to the FAStT host port. When homogeneous host servers are directly attached to the FAStT Storage server, access to all logical drives may be satisfactory, or when attached to a SAN, zoning within the fabric can be used to limit access to the FAStT host ports to specific set of hosts. The FAStT600 base product (without the Turbo feature) provides the Default Host Group. Premium features are available to support four, eight, or sixteen Storage Partitions. If logical drive access control is required for your configuration, particularly in a SAN or multiple server environments, then it is recommended that you add the option for Storage Partitions. On other FAStT Storage Servers which include a minimum number of Storage Partitions, Storage Partitioning must be used when configuring logical drives and hosts. * Dynamic Volume Expansion (DVE) is only supported on AIX 5.2. * Booting from a FAStT device with Storage Manager v8.41 and EXP100 is not supported. * Interoperability with tape devices is supported on separate HBA and switch zones. * Interoperability with IBM 2105 and SDD Software is supported on separate HBA and switch zones. * Online Appware/Snapware and NVSRAM firmware upgrades are not supported on AIX hosts and Storage Manager v8.41 with EXP100 drawers. I/O must be quiesced prior to performing the upgrade. * FAStT Copy Services, such as FlashCopy, VolumeCopy, and Remote Volume Mirroring are not supported at this time with Storage Manager version 8.41 and EXP100 drawers. * AIX version 4.3.3 and earlier are not supported with Storage Manager version 8.41 and EXP100 drawers. * AIX Clustering (HACMP, PSSP, GPFS) is not supported at this time with Storage Manager version 8.41 and EXP100 drawers. 3.1 Helpful Hints ------------------------------- 1. The IBM FAStT Storage Manager will prompt you for a password if an attempt is made to manage a storage subsystem where the FAStT RAID Controller Unit does not have access to any hard disk drives. This will occur even if no password has been setup. The automatic discovery will discover each storage subsystem as two separate storage subsystems. To prevent this from occurring, ensure that at least one FAStT Drive Enclosure (EXP500 or EXP700) with at least one drive is properly attached to each of the FAStT500 or FAStT700 RAID storage subsystems that are being managed. Since the RAID controller unit should not be powered on until the expansion units are attached and powered on, this should be done by powering off the RAID controller unit, properly attaching all expansion units (with drives installed), to the RAID controller unit and powering them on, and then powering the RAID controller unit back on. At this point the storage subsystems can be rediscovered and managed using the IBM FAStT Storage Manager 8.3x software. 2. If you are unable to see the maximum number of drives during Automatic Configuration, you should be able to use Manual Configuration to select individual drives and select the maximum number of drives allowed. 3.2 Configuration settings ------------------------------ 1. By default the IBM FAStT Storage Manager 8.3x firmware does not automatically map logical drives. This means that the logical drives are not automatically presented to host systems. For a new installation, after creating new arrays and logical drives; a. If your host type is not Windows NT, create a partition with your host type and map the logical drives to this partition. b. If your host type is Windows NT, you can map your logical drives to the "Default Host Group" or create a partition with a NT host type. When upgrading from previous versions of IBM FAStT Storage Manager to version 8.3x. a. If you are upgrading with no defined storage partitions in operating system other than Windows NT, you will need to create a storage partition with the appropriate operating system host type and map the logical drives from the "Default Host Group" to this partition. b. If you are upgrading with defined storage partitions and an operating system other than Windows NT is accessing the default host group, you will need to change the default host type to this operating system host type after upgrading. The FAStT Storage Manager upgrading will reset the default host type to Windows NT host type. Refer to the IBM FAStT Storage Manager online help to learn more about creating storage partitions and changing host types. ======================================================================= 4.0 WEB Sites and Support Phone Number -------------------------------------- 4.1 IBM TotalStorage™ Disk Storage Systems Technical Support web site: http://www.ibm.com/storage/support/fastt 4.2 IBM TotalStorage Web Site: http://www.storage.ibm.com 4.3 If you have any questions about this update, or problem applying the update go to the following Help Center World Telephone Numbers URL: http://www.ibm.com/planetwide ======================================================================= 5.0 Trademarks and Notices -------------------------- 5.1 The following terms are trademarks of the IBM Corporation in the United States or other countries or both: IBM the e-business logo xSeries HelpCenter AIX Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United states, other countries, or both. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries. Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. ======================================================================= 6.0 Disclaimer -------------- 6.1 THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. IBM DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND MERCHANTABILITY WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT. BY FURNISHING THIS DOCUMENT, IBM GRANTS NO LICENSES TO ANY PATENTS OR COPYRIGHTS. 6.2 Note to U.S. Government Users -- Documentation related to restricted rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure is subject to restrictions set forth in GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corporation.