[Info-vax] VMS Storage options

[Mark Berryman]

On 10/25/20 10:02 AM, Robert A. Brooks wrote:
> On 10/23/2020 3:07 PM, Mark Berryman wrote:
>> To those VSI folks who sometimes respond here:
>>
>> Are you aware of any requests from your customers for iSCSI support?
> 
> In six years, I've heard of a single customer who asked about it.
> 
>> I could also provide SSD based storage via Fibre Channel if VMS did 
>> not require a UDID.
> 
> We have several customers using non-HP arrays that are backed with SSD's 
> for the
> virtual disks.  These arrays have been qualified by us for VSI VMS.
> 
>> Here's a thought:
>> Since tape devices do not support UDID, their WWID is placed in 
>> SYS$SYSTEM:SYS$DEVICES.DAT and their VMS device name is defined there. 
>> Could the same be done for disks?
> 
> I'll have to check on that.
> 
> My initial thought is yeah, we could probably make that work, but there 
> are enough differences between disks and tapes that we'd wind up with a 
> lot of
> device type-specific code that it would be a maintenance mess for 
> marginal gain.
> 
> Add in the concern about breaking the fibre channel multipath stuff 
> that's been stable for 20+ years . . .

(The following does not wrap at my end.  Let me know if does when you 
try to read it and I will try to reformat it).

So, I put together a quick test.

First, I created a new volume in my HP SAN but did not assign a UDID.
Next, I devised a patch to autogen where I replaced a status message 
with code telling it to use the LUN if a UDID was not available.

Autogen then successfully created the device, or so I thought.

Here is the autogen output:

%IOGEN-I-FIBRE, port PGA0: Probing, FC-LA= 6, lun= 33-->time:13-NOV-2020 
08:17:56.64
-IOGEN-I-FABRIC, Fabric address = 650000, port = 
217000c0ff1291ed-->time:13-NOV-2020 08:17:56.64
-IOGEN-I-FIBRE, port PGA0: STD_INQ, V: HP      , P: P2000G3 FC/iSCSI, R: 
T252-->time:13-NOV-2020 08:17:56.64
-IOGEN-I-FIBRE, port PGA0: PARSE SCSI UDID, udid= 33, status= 
1-->time:13-NOV-2020 08:17:56.64
etc.

%IOGEN-I-FIBRE, port PGB0: Probing, FC-LA= 5, lun= 33-->time:13-NOV-2020 
08:17:58.94
-IOGEN-I-FABRIC, Fabric address = 650000, port = 
217000c0ff1291ed-->time:13-NOV-2020 08:17:58.94
-IOGEN-I-FIBRE, port PGB0: STD_INQ, V: HP      , P: P2000G3 FC/iSCSI, R: 
T252-->time:13-NOV-2020 08:17:58.94
-IOGEN-I-FIBRE, port PGB0: PARSE SCSI UDID, udid= 33, status= 
1-->time:13-NOV-2020 08:17:58.94
etc.

%IOGEN-I-FIBREPOLL, scanning for devices through FIBRE port PGA0
%IOGEN-I-CONFIGURED, configured device DGA33
%IOGEN-I-CONFIGURED, configured device DGA33
%IOGEN-I-CONFIGURED, configured device DGA33
%IOGEN-I-CONFIGURED, configured device DGA33
%IOGEN-I-FIBREPOLL, scanning for devices through FIBRE port PGB0
%IOGEN-I-CONFIGURED, configured device DGA33
%IOGEN-I-CONFIGURED, configured device DGA33
%IOGEN-I-CONFIGURED, configured device DGA33
%IOGEN-I-CONFIGURED, configured device DGA33

The device shows up with all appropriate paths:
$ show dev/full $1$dga33

Disk $1$DGA33: (ALDUR), device type HP P2000G3 FC/iSCSI, is online, file-
     oriented device, shareable, available to cluster, device has 
multiple I/O
     paths, error logging is enabled.

     Error count                    0    Operations completed 
        0
     Owner process                 ""    Owner UIC 
[SYSTEM]
     Owner process ID        00000000    Dev Prot 
S:RWPL,O:RWPL,G:R,W
     Reference count                0    Default buffer size 
      512
     Current preferred CPU Id       0    Fastpath 
        1
     WWID   01000010:600C-0FF0-0013-0C44-6324-AD5F-0100-0000
     Allocation class               1

   I/O paths to device              8

   Path PGA0.2170-00C0-FF12-91ED  (ALDUR), primary
     Error count                    0    Operations completed 
        0
     Last switched to time:   Never                     Count 
        0
     Last switched from time: 13-NOV-2020 08:17:57.41

   Path PGA0.2070-00C0-FF12-91ED  (ALDUR)
     Error count                    0    Operations completed 
        0
     Last switched to time:   Never                     Count 
        0
     Last switched from time: Never

   Path PGA0.2570-00C0-FF12-91ED  (ALDUR)
     Error count                    0    Operations completed 
        0
     Last switched to time:   Never                     Count 
        0
     Last switched from time: Never

   Path PGA0.2470-00C0-FF12-91ED  (ALDUR), current
     Error count                    0    Operations completed 
        0
     Last switched to time:   13-NOV-2020 08:17:57.41   Count 
        1
     Last switched from time: Never

   Path PGB0.2170-00C0-FF12-91ED  (ALDUR)
     Error count                    0    Operations completed 
        0
     Last switched to time:   Never                     Count 
        0
     Last switched from time: Never

   Path PGB0.2570-00C0-FF12-91ED  (ALDUR)
     Error count                    0    Operations completed 
        0
     Last switched to time:   Never                     Count 
        0
     Last switched from time: Never

   Path PGB0.2070-00C0-FF12-91ED  (ALDUR)
     Error count                    0    Operations completed 
        0
     Last switched to time:   Never                     Count 
        0
     Last switched from time: Never

   Path PGB0.2470-00C0-FF12-91ED  (ALDUR)
     Error count                    0    Operations completed 
        0
     Last switched to time:   Never                     Count 
        0
     Last switched from time: Never


However, any attempt to use the device comes back with a device offline 
error.  So far, I haven't been able find what is missing.  If anyone has 
any ideas, I would sure appreciate them.

Mark