Sun Storage 2500, 2500-M2, and 6000 Arrays: Disabling MPxIO May Cause "drive type unknown" in Output of format Command

Asset ID:	1-72-1599715.1
Update Date:	2013-11-14
Keywords:

Solution Type Problem Resolution Sure

Solution 1599715.1 : Sun Storage 2500, 2500-M2, and 6000 Arrays: Disabling MPxIO May Cause "drive type unknown" in Output of format Command

Applies to:

Sun Storage Flexline 380 Array - Version Not Applicable and later
Sun Storage 6140 Array - Version All Versions and later
Sun Storage 6130 Array - Version All Versions and later
Sun Storage 6540 Array - Version All Versions and later
Sun Storage 6580 Array - Version All Versions and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Symptoms

Instead of typical disk inquiry information, the Solaris command, format is reporting several drives as <drive type unknown>. Normally, one would suspect a disk or data path failure. However, there are no problems anywhere. All I/O and performance is normal. There are no error messages on the server and there are no alarms on the array.

Changes

Look for any changes to the multipath configuration on either the server or the array. Another trigger may be an upgrade to Symantecs, Storage Foundation 5.0. It may also very well be that the output has been there all along and just never noticed.

Cause

All of the Sun Storage 2500 and 6000 arrays support multipathing. There are a variety of multipathing solutions available, which need to be properly installed and correctly configured on both the server and the array. Two of the more popular solutions are Solaris mpxio (aka Traffic manager) and Symantecs, Dynamic Multi Pathing (aka DMP). With the introduction of Symantecs, Storage Foundation 5.0, array support was included for both native DMP as well as Solaris with Traffic Manager. If the array is configured for mpxio and the server is configured for dmp, you will see those drives report as <drive type unknown> in format.

Solution

There is no need to fix anything. Its simply a reporting anomaly. Here are some examples of the supported combinations of tunables you can use, and how to verify they are all correctly configured.

The first, very traditional configuration.

The array is configured for Solaris with Traffic Manager (aka mpxio)
The /kernel/drv/fp.conf file has "mpxio-disable=no" (Solaris multipathing is on)
luxadm is used to verify the virtual scsi_vhci disk device has two physical paths.
vxprint is used to view an enabled volume.

# echo | format
98. c7t600A0B80002FBC6700001A995280B0FDd0 <SUN-LCSM100_F-0670 cyl 5118 alt 2 hd 64 sec 64>
      /scsi_vhci/ssd@g600a0b80002fbc6700001a995280b0fd
99. c7t600A0B80002FBC6700001953516DF7E7d0 <SUN-LCSM100_F-0670 cyl 65533 alt 2 hd 128 sec 139>
      /scsi_vhci/ssd@g600a0b80002fbc6700001953516df7e7

# vxdisk -e list
DEVICE      TYPE          DISK      GROUP   STATUS OS_NATIVE_NAME
st2540-0_0 auto:cdsdisk datadg01 datadg online c7t600A0B80002FBC6700001953516DF7E7d0s2
st2540-0_1 auto:cdsdisk datadg02 datadg online c7t600A0B80002FBC6700001A995280B0FDd0s2

# luxadm display /dev/rdsk/c7t600A0B80002FBC6700001A995280B0FDd0s2
   /devices/scsi_vhci/ssd@g600a0b80002fbc6700001a995280b0fd:c,raw
    Controller           /devices/pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0,2/SUNW,qlc@1,1/fp@0,0
    Device Address              202500a0b82fbc5d,1
    Host controller port WWN    210100e08ba322cd
    Class                       primary
    State                       ONLINE
    Controller           /devices/pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0,2/SUNW,qlc@1/fp@0,0
    Device Address              203400a0b82fbc5d,1
    Host controller port WWN    210000e08b8322cd
    Class                       secondary
    State                       STANDBY

# vxprint -ht -g datadg
v vol01        -            ENABLED ACTIVE   6291456 SELECT    vol01-01 fsgen
pl vol01-01     vol01        ENABLED ACTIVE   6291456 STRIPE    2/128    RW
sd datadg01-01 vol01-01     datadg01 0        3145728 0/0       st2540-0_0 ENA
sd datadg02-01 vol01-01     datadg02 0        3145728 1/0       st2540-0_1 ENA

In the second configuration

The array is configured for Solaris with Veritas DMP or Other.
The /kernel/drv/fp.conf file has "mpxio-disable=yes" (Solaris multipathing is off)
vxdisk is used to verify the two paths available to the DMP driver.
vxprint is used to view an enabled volume.

# echo | format
    3. c2t1d0 <SUN-LCSM100_F-0670 cyl 65533 alt 2 hd 128 sec 139>
       /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0,2/SUNW,qlc@1/fp@0,0/ssd@w203400a0b82fbc5d,0
    4. c2t1d1 <SUN-LCSM100_F-0670 cyl 5118 alt 2 hd 64 sec 64>
       /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0,2/SUNW,qlc@1/fp@0,0/ssd@w203400a0b82fbc5d,1
    6. c3t2d0 <SUN-LCSM100_F-0670 cyl 65533 alt 2 hd 128 sec 139>
       /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0,2/SUNW,qlc@1,1/fp@0,0/ssd@w202500a0b82fbc5d,0
    7. c3t2d1 <SUN-LCSM100_F-0670 cyl 5118 alt 2 hd 64 sec 64>
       /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0,2/SUNW,qlc@1,1/fp@0,0/ssd@w202500a0b82fbc5d,1

# vxdisk -e list
   DEVICE    TYPE          DISK      GROUP    STATUS   OS_NATIVE_NAME   ATTR
   c2t1d0s2 auto:cdsdisk datadg01 datadg   online   c2t1d0s2         -
   c2t1d1s2 auto:cdsdisk datadg02 datadg   online   c2t1d1s2         -

# vxdisk list c2t1d1s2
   Device:    c2t1d1s2
    Multipathing information:
    numpaths:   2
    c2t1d1s2        state=enabled   type=secondary
    c3t2d1s2        state=enabled   type=primary

# vxprint -g datadg -ht
    v vol01        -            ENABLED ACTIVE   6291456 SELECT    vol01-01 fsgen
    pl vol01-01     vol01        ENABLED ACTIVE   6291456 STRIPE    2/128    RW
    sd datadg01-01 vol01-01     datadg01 0        3145728 0/0       c2t1d0   ENA
    sd datadg02-01 vol01-01     datadg02 0        3145728 1/0       c2t1d1   ENA

In this third configuration, everything is working even though the disk reports as <drive type unknown>

The array is configured for Solaris with Traffic Manager. (aka mpxio)
The /kernel/drv/fp.conf file has "mpxio-disable=yes" (Solaris multipathing is off)
vxdisk is used to verify the two paths available to the DMP driver.
vxprint is used to view an enabled volume.

# echo | format
   3. c2t1d0 <drive type unknown>
      /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0,2/SUNW,qlc@1/fp@0,0/ssd@w203400a0b82fbc5d,0
   4. c2t1d1 <drive type unknown>
      /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0,2/SUNW,qlc@1/fp@0,0/ssd@w203400a0b82fbc5d,1
   6. c3t2d0 <SUN-LCSM100_F-0670 cyl 65533 alt 2 hd 128 sec 139>
      /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0,2/SUNW,qlc@1,1/fp@0,0/ssd@w202500a0b82fbc5d,0
   7. c3t2d1 <SUN-LCSM100_F-0670 cyl 5118 alt 2 hd 64 sec 64>
      /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0,2/SUNW,qlc@1,1/fp@0,0/ssd@w202500a0b82fbc5d,1

# vxdisk -e list
   DEVICE    TYPE          DISK      GROUP    STATUS   OS_NATIVE_NAME   ATTR
   c2t1d0s2 auto:cdsdisk datadg01 datadg   online   c2t1d0s2         -
   c2t1d1s2 auto:cdsdisk datadg02 datadg   online   c2t1d1s2         -

# vxdisk list c2t1d1s2
   Device:    c2t1d1s2
    Multipathing information:
    numpaths:   2
    c2t1d1s2        state=enabled   type=secondary
    c3t2d1s2        state=enabled   type=primary

# vxprint -g datadg -ht
    v vol01        -            ENABLED ACTIVE   6291456 SELECT    vol01-01 fsgen
    pl vol01-01     vol01        ENABLED ACTIVE   6291456 STRIPE    2/128    RW
    sd datadg01-01 vol01-01     datadg01 0        3145728 0/0       c2t1d0   ENA
    sd datadg02-01 vol01-01     datadg02 0        3145728 1/0       c2t1d1   ENA

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