HP P6000 Enterprise Virtual Array Release

Notes
XCS 11200000
Abstract
This document applies to the HP EVA4400/6400/8400, HP P6300/6500 EVA, and HP P6350/6550 EVA storage systems.
HP Part Number: 5697-2482
Published: September 2013
Edition: 1
Copyright 2008, 2013 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
Microsoft and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Description
Version:
XCS 11200000
This document contains information specific to the release of XCS 11200000, which applies to the
following array models:
Disk enclosure model Controller model Array model
M6412 or M6412A HSV300
1
or HSV300-S
1
HP 4400 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA4400)
M6412A HSV400 HP 6400 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA6400)
M6412A HSV450 HP 8400 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA8400)
M6612 (LFF) or M6625 (SFF) HSV340
1
HP P6300 Enterprise Virtual Array (P6300 EVA)
M6612 (LFF) or M6625 (SFF) HSV360
1
HP P6500 Enterprise Virtual Array (P6500 EVA)
M6612 (LFF) or M6625 (SFF) HSV340
1
HP P6350 Enterprise Virtual Array (P6350 EVA)
M6612 (LFF) or M6625 (SFF) HSV360
1
HP P6550 Enterprise Virtual Array (P6550 EVA)
1
One enclosure contains two controllers.
The information in this document is not provided elsewhere. HP recommends that you read this
information thoroughly.
NOTE: M6612 and M6625 are the product names for the large form factor (LFF) and small form
factor (SFF) disk enclosures for the P63x0/P65x0 EVA. However, the product name or model number
can appear in HP P6000 Command View as D2600 or D2700.
Update recommendation
Recommended Mandatory
Compatibility and interoperability
XCS 11200000 requires HP P6000 Command View 10.3 or later. To purchase the software,
contact your HP representative or go to the HP Command View EVA product page (http://
h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storage/software/cmdvieweva/index.html) for more information.
For iSCSI setup, XCS 11200000 requires iSCSI or iSCSI/FCoE module firmware 3.2.2.11 or
later. Perform the following steps to download the firmware:
1. Go to http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storage/software/cmdvieweva/index.html.
2. Select Drivers & Downloads.
3. Enter P6000 in Find by product search box.
4. Select the array type, for example, HP EVA P6550 Dual Controller FC/1 GbE iSCSI Array.
5. Select Cross operating system (BIOS, Firmware, Diagnostics, etc.).
6. Select the required image, for example, HP P6000 1 GbE iSCSI and 10 GbE iSCSI/FCoE
Firmware.
Enhancements
This release of HP P6000 XCS Controller Software 11200000 includes the following enhancements:
vSphere Storage APIs Array Integration (VAAI) space reclamation support (SCSI command:
UNMAP) - This capability enables VMWare ESX5.1x server to reclaim block space on the HP
Description 3
P6000 EVA Thin Provisioned LUN (FC/iSCSI interface) by reclaiming free space in the VMFS
data stores.
Recommendation
HP recommends to run one instance of VMware 5.1x block space reclamation operation at
a time per EVA array. It is also recommended not to run Windows Server 2012 Drive
Optimization using Optimize Drives concurrently with VMware 5.1x block space reclamation.
The manual reclaim option is recommended during off peak hours or maintenance window.
Executing this command during a peak/active workload time impacts the I/O performance
for the Virtual Machine.
When performing storage space reclamation, HP recommends that the percentage of the
space deletion specified in the vmkfstools -y <%>, command must be greater than 90%.
The space reclamation is more effective if the percentage is higher.
Windows Server 2012 Thin Provisioning support (SCSI command: UNMAP) This capability
enables Windows Server 2012 to reclaim block space on the EVA Thin Provisioned LUN (FC/iSCSI
interface) . In addition to the UNMAP command, the enhancement set includes:
Thin LUN identification support: EVA firmware supports or publishes UNMAP capability
allowing Windows Server 2012 host to recognize the EVA Thin LUN as Thin Provisioned
Resource.
Support for Thin provisioned threshold notification (Unit Attention) from array: Once the space
utilization or allocation by thin provisioned LUN crosses the threshold set through the vendor
management interface (for example, P6000 Command View), the storage array generates
a Soft Threshold Reached Unit Attention condition for the host.
Support for Logical Block Provisioned Log Page: This provides host capability to query the
Thin Provisioned LUNs allocated capacity and shared available capacity for the LUN. After
Windows Server 2012 receives the Soft Threshold Reached Unit Attention, Windows Server
2012 host queries this information and logs an event in the system event log.
Out of space condition: When Thin Provisioned LUN runs out of storage space, the storage
device terminates the write operation with a check condition and sends a SPACE ALLOCATION
FAILED WRITE PROTECT message.
Get LBA status Command Support: EVA firmware implementation allows the host to query
logical block allocation status of LBA range and the EVA returns the status (as mapped/
allocated, de-allocated/unmapped) appropriately.
Support for new host mode Microsoft Windows 2012 in P6000 Command View for windows
server 2012 host.
Recommendation
HP recommends that you subject a single EVA array to a maximum of six concurrent sessions
of Drive Optimization operation (on six windows volume) through Windows Server 2012
Optimize Drives utility at a time. It is also recommended not to run VMware 5.1x block space
reclamation concurrently with Windows Server 2012 Drive Optimization using Optimize
Drives.
HP recommends to run Drive Optimization operation (slab consolidation) periodically on
each Windows volume through Optimize Drives utility with underlying EVA Thin LUN for
better EVA Thin LUN space reclamation.
If a file system data set contains small files which are tens of MB in size, deletion of these
files does not result in effective space reclamation. HP recommends you to run the Optimize
Drives utility after deleting the files periodically.
4 Enhancements
HP recommends to perform space reclamation operation (using Optimize Drives utility) during
off peak hours and a maintenance window.
HP recommends existing Windows Server 2012 host configured as Microsoft Windows 2008
host mode to be changed to Microsoft Windows 2012 using Command View 10.3.
Fixes
This release of HP P6000 XCS Controller Software 11200000 includes the following defect fixes:
Controller Termination
This section describes issues that can result in termination of controller operation. A single controller
termination results in a reduction of redundancy. A dual controller termination indicates a possibility
of a data unavailable condition. A recursive termination is addressed using manual intervention.
Addressed an issue where a controller termination (TC:02160102 ) occurred due to an abnormally
high read data workload.
Corrected an issue where Unit Stalled Too Long and CSM reset terminations were caused by
excessive explicit controller LUN transitions.
Addressed an issue where a controller termination (TC: 021b0100) occurs when changing a
mirror clone unit to write through the cache mode.
Corrected a controller termination (TC: 0205010a) which occurs during deletion of an
overcommitted Thin Provisioned virtual disk.
Addressed a controller termination (TC: 0f010101) which occurs due to a high workload introduced
by VMware VAAI processes.
Addressed an issue which results in a repeated controller termination due to loss of an adapter
WWN that has an outstanding persistent reservation on a LUN.
Addressed controller termination issue caused by resolution of a disk group with failed VRaid0
virtual disks.
Addressed a USTL which can occur during Mirror port unavailable condition.
Addressed a USTL which can rarely occur on a controller when the other controller is shutdown.
Fixed an issue which may occur during a scenario where the storage array is rebooted when the
VDISK deletion is in progress.
Fixed an issue where, in certain scenarios, the two controllers appear to have different view of
the mirror condition.
Fixed a timeout during array boot where in, if we do process the work due to reasons such as
mirror break, then a semaphore will be stuck waiting for the signal.
Continuous Access
Added a retry mechanism to address most instances of an issue which results in deletion of source
Data Replication groups due to delayed discovery of the remote storage system.
Fixed an issue that may occur when DR group is being brought online while DR group deletion
is in progress.
Fixed an issue in scenarios where the idle tunnels may remain open for more than 15 minutes.
Event logs
Addressed event reporting issue for disk group threshold alarms.
Disks (disk groups, virtual disks)
Fixes 5
This section describes the issues affecting the physical and virtual disks or disk groups which may lead
to multiple possibilities including loss of redundancy, performance impact, or data unavailability.
Corrected an issue where LUN IDs are reset to 0 after a controller restart.
Addressed an issue with a VAAI XCOPY operation where the final region was not completing
but instead lead to a USTL condition.
Fixed an issue when Metadata inoperative condition occurs during a mirror clone fracture
operation.
Fixed an issue related to e-bits in case of read media errors during snapshot unsharing for a Raid
5 source LUN.
Fixed an issue which may cause repeated active controller transfers for a LUN.
Hardware (replaceable parts, device ports, resynchronization)
This section describes the issues affecting the physical hardware which can lead to incorrect condition
handling, false condition reporting, and similar events that may lead to incorrect device status reporting
or replacement.
Fixed an issue related to handling of controller memory errors which cause a controller termination
(TC: 04e63d0c or 04e73f0c) due to a process watchdog timeout.
Operating systems
For complete information about operating system specifications and supported configurations, see the
Single Point of Connectivity Knowledge (SPOCK) at http://www.hp.com/storage/spock. You must
log in to access SPOCK. If you do not already have an HP Passport, click Register to log in on the
main page and follow the instructions.
Upgrade and downgrade paths
For details about supported upgrade paths to XCS 11200000, see Table 3.1, Upgrade support for
controller software versions, in the HP P6000 Enterprise Virtual Array Compatibility Reference. For
supported downgrade paths from XCS 11200000, see Table 3.2, Downgrade support for controller
software versions in the HP P6000 Enterprise Virtual Array Compatibility Reference.
For upgrade instructions, see the HP P6000 EVA Updating Product Software Guide (XCS 11200000).
You can download these documents from the following website:
http://www.hp.com/support/manuals
Under Storage, click Disk Storage Systems, and then under HP EVA P6000 Storage, select your storage
system.
HP P6000 SmartStart
HP P6000 SmartStart is a disk-based wizard that you use on your Windows Server 2003, 2008, or
2012 system to install and configure HP P6000 Command View. You can use HP P6000 Command
View to configure, manage, and monitor your storage system.
6 Operating systems
NOTE: When upgrading, the Device Addition Policy for disk groups must be set to Manual. See
Checking the disk grouping policy in the HP Enterprise Virtual Array Updating Product Software
Guide (XCS 11200000) for more information.
A full restart of both controllers is required only one time after HP P6000 Command View and
the management module software are installed on the management module of the EVA4400. This
applies when upgrading to XCS 09006000 or later. Subsequent upgrades of controller software
or management module software, or upgrading HP P6000 Command View on the management
module, do not require another full restart.
EVA4400s are shipped with HP P6000 Command View 9.2 or later pre-installed on the
management module within the controller enclosure (for array-based management).
The HP P6300/6500 EVA are shipped with HP P6000 Command View 9.4 or later pre-installed.
The HP P6350/6550 EVA are shipped with HP P6000 Command View 10.1 or later pre-installed.
You can use HP P6000 SmartStart to configure application servers.
To bypass the HP P6000 SmartStart interface and manually run the HP P6000 Command View installer,
go to the \bin\installers\CV directory on the DVD.
HP P6000 SmartStart installs HP MPIO EVA DSM, which enables you to provision storage from the
storage system; and DSM Manager, which enables you to change the default settings of HP MPIO
EVA DSM.
For more information about HP P6000 SmartStart, see the latest product release notes, available at:
http://www.hp.com/support/manuals
Under storage, select Storage Software, and then under Storage Device Management Software, select
HP P6000 SmartStart Storage Software.
SAN support
The HSV300 controller in the EVA4400 supports 2/4 Gb Fibre Channel communication, but requires
4 Gb SFPs in the controller host ports. The HSV300-S supports up to 8 Gb communication through the
embedded switch ports.
The HSV400 controller in the EVA6400 and the HSV450 controller in the EVA8400 are enabled for
4 Gb/s on each Fibre Channel host path, but will also support 2 Gb/s Fibre Channel host paths and
components for backward compatibility.
NOTE: 1 Gb path and components have specific configuration requirements. For more information
on configuration requirements and support for 2 Gb and 4 Gb EVAs, see the HP SAN Design Reference
Guide, which can be downloaded from the following website:
http://www.hp.com/go/sdgmanuals
Supported Fibre Channel switches
For complete information on which Fibre Channel switches are supported, see the Single Point of
Connectivity Knowledge (SPOCK) at http://www.hp.com/support/manuals. You must log in to access
SPOCK. If you do not already have an HP Passport account, select Register to log in on the main page
and follow the instructions.
Supported disks
For information about disk drive support, see HP P6000 Enterprise Virtual Array Disk Drive Firmware
Support, available on the HP Manuals website http://www.hp.com/support/manuals.
Under storage, click Disk Storage Systems, and then under EVA P6000 Storage, select your EVA.
SAN support 7
Performance sizing
To configure your array for the intended disk models and host I/O workloads, contact your HP account
support representative for consulting services and instructions. For additional information on performance
and solutions, see the following HP websites:
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/arraywhitepapers.html
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/whitepapers.html
Workarounds
This section identifies important notes and workarounds for the P6000 EVA4400, P63x0/65x0,
EVA6400, and EVA8400. If you encounter difficulties with the workarounds, contact HP Services for
assistance.
Hardware and controller software
Controller replacement
Restart HP P6000 Command View after replacing the controller. Failure to do so could result in losing
the ability to manage the storage array.
Controller software version renditions
Although HP P6000 Command View displays the controller software version in the GUI using a period,
such as 1120.0000, other renditions of the version number, such as 11200000, 1120 0000, and
11.20.00.00, may appear elsewhere.
Setting the controller power on behavior
In the HP P6000 Control Panel online help and user guide, the Controller power on behavior and
Setting controller power on behavior sections describe the HP P6000 Control Panel feature that can
be set so that the array boots up automatically when power is applied after a full shutdown. To further
clarify this feature:
If this feature is disabled and you turn on power to the array from the rack power distribution unit
(PDU), only the disk enclosures boot up. With this feature enabled, the controllers will also boot
up, making the entire array ready for use.
If, after setting this feature, you remove the management module from its slot and reinsert it to
reset power or you restart the management module from the HP P6000 Control Panel, only the
controllers will automatically boot up after a full shutdown. In this scenario, you must ensure that
the disk enclosures are powered up first; otherwise, the controller boot up process may be
interrupted.
After setting this HP P6000 Control Panel feature, if you have to shut down the array, perform
the following steps:
1. Use HP P6000 Command View to shut down the controllers and disk enclosures.
2. Turn off power from the rack power distribution unit (PDU).
3. Turn on power from the rack PDU.
After startup of the management module, the controllers will automatically start.
Host ports which are configured to use optical loopback plugs (due to no external connection)
may require a second restart after a complete power up sequence to be set properly.
Stale Inquiry data issue after SSD firmware upgrade
After upgrading disk drive firmware on solid state disk drives, HP P6000 Command View may indicate
that the upgrade was successful, but the disk drive properties page does not reflect the upgraded
firmware version.
8 Performance sizing
To resolve this issue:
1. Upgrade the disk drive again.
2. Wait 10 minutes before checking the disk drive properties page to verify the correct firmware
version is displaying.
3. If the problem persists, contact HP Support Engineering.
Recognizing Thin Provisioning Space Reclamation capability
After upgrading to XCS 11200000, existing VMFS data store Deleted Status may be displayed
as Not supported for EVA Thin Provisioned LUN. You can ignore the Deleted Status and continue
to issue blocks space reclamation command on the ESX host.
After upgrading to XCS 11200000, existing thin provisioned LUN may still appear as normal
LUN to Windows Server 2012 host. Perform the following steps to resolve this issue:
1. Restart the Windows Server 2012 host
2. Unpresent/Present the EVA thin provisioned LUN to the Windows Server 2012 host using
Command View.
Data Replication Protocol changes after controller software upgrade
In an HP P6000 Continuous Access configuration, the Data Replication Protocol may change to HP
SCSI FC Compliant Data Replication Protocol when the array being upgraded to XCS 11200000 or
later is:
An EVA4400 that was initialized at a controller software version earlier than XCS 09500000
An EVA6400 or EVA8400 that was upgraded from an EVA4400 (data in place upgrade) and
was initialized at a controller software version earlier than XCS 09500000.
Symptoms of this issue are:
Data replication stops after the upgrade.
There are no visible paths to the destination array. To determine if there are visible paths, select
the Data Replication folder in the HP P6000 Command View navigation pane. When the Data
Replication Properties Folder window opens in the content pane, select View remote connections.
To resolve this issue, you must set the protocol to HP FC Data Replication Protocol in HP P6000
Command View as follows:
1. Select the upgraded array in the EVA Storage Network Properties window.
2. Select the Data Replication folder in the navigation pane.
The Data Replication Properties Folder window opens in the content pane.
3. Select Data Replication Options.
The Data Replication Options window opens.
4. Select Set Data Replication Protocol.
The Data Replication Protocol options window opens.
5. Select HP FC Data Replication Protocol.
6. Select Save Changes.
DR log progress bar percentage appears incorrect
Because the DR log can suddenly reach the full copy threshold, the percentage complete displayed
by HP P6000 Command View can appear to be inaccurate. This is caused by overhead (or metadata)
that is applied to the file and is included in the percent complete, which reduces the amount of capacity
available. This overhead is more significant for smaller log files than larger log files because some of
the overhead is constant in size. For example, a 5 GB minimum log size can contain 35 percent
overhead, while a 40 GB log file might only contain 10 percent overhead. This could cause the
Workarounds 9
progress bar in HP P6000 Command View to show a larger amount of progress than one would
expect for the allocated log size.
Connectivity
This section describes workarounds for HBA, switch, and operating system connectivity. For the latest
support information about connectivity, see the Single Point of Connectivity Knowledge (SPOCK) at
http://www.hp.com/storage/spock. If you do not already have an HP Passpost account, select Register
to log in on the main page and follow the instructions.
HP P6000 Command View shutdown confirmation window
If you use Internet Explorer, the HP P6000 shutdown option confirmation window can appear with a
transparent background, making it difficult to read because the information is superimposed over the
existing window. To avoid this condition, add HP P6000 Command View to your list of trusted sites:
1. Open Internet Explorer and browse to the website you want to add as a trusted site.
2. Select ToolsInternet Options.
3. Click the Security tab.
4. Under Select a zone to view or change security settings, click Trusted sites, and then click Sites.
5. If the URL does not populate the Add this website to the zone box, enter https://servername,
or IP:2374, and then click Add.
6. Click Close, and then click OK.
Aborted I/O cause multipath failures in Linux environments
In heavily loaded Linux environments, when the array reaches QUEUE FULL status, the host might
interpret the event as aborted I/Os. Device Mapper on the Linux hosts might interpret these aborts as
path failures, and disable the path from where the Abort was received and in turn retry the I/O on
another path. The disabled path is re-instated after the next multipath polling interval.
Connecting a P6000 EVA as external storage
If an HP P6000 EVA is connected as external storage to a P9500 XP array, updating the P6000 EVA
to XCS 11001100 or later can result in reports on an unsupported EVA and access to the external
volumes from P6000 EVA to be lost. XCS 11001100 or later support requires:
RAID700 (P9500) firmware 70-03-34-00/00 or later.
RAID600 (XP24000/XP20000) firmware version that supports XCS 11001100 or later. Consult
with your HP representative for the supported version.
RAID500 (XP12000/XP10000/SVS200) firmware version that supports XCS 11001100 or later.
Consult with your HP representative for the supported version.
The XP firmware upgrades must be installed on the P9500 XP prior to upgrading to XCS11001100
or later.
Use HP DSM driver in failover clustering environment
In a Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2012 Failover Clustering environment, use the HP
DSM driver only; do not use Microsoft DSM. For more information, see the Microsoft Technet article,
Understanding MPIO Features and Components, at:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee619734(WS.10).aspx
10 Workarounds
Using HP P6000 Command View on a Windows 2008 guest system on ESX 4.1 or 5
When using HP P6000 Command View on a Windows 2008 or Windows 2012 guest on ESX 4.1
or 5, use one of the following methods to upgrade the firmware to ensure a successful upgrade, or
your array code load will fail in a VMware Guest OS configuration:
Array-Based Management module
Physical server-based HP P6000 Command View
Direct Path I/O mapping from ESX (requires supported hardware on the ESX server)
NOTE: This restriction does not apply to a disk code load.
Symantec VxFS file system
For information about thin provisioning support on the VxFS file system, see the Symantec support and
best practices documentation at http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=home.
RHEL 6.1 K option
For the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.1 operating system, you must use the -K option when
creating a file system on a thin provisioning LUN. This affects all ext# file system versions of RHEL
6.1.
RHEL 6.1 Boot from SAN
BFS on thin provisioning LUNs is not supported with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.1 operating
system.
Windows 2003 server requires hotfix
If the management server is running Microsoft Windows 2003, HP P6000 Command View may not
display any array. To resolve this issue, you must install a Microsoft hotfix. Go to the following link
for details and the hotfix download:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945119
If you are using the server for storage only, not as a management server, you do not need to install
this hotfix.
HP MPIO EVA DSM requirement
HP strongly recommends that you always install the latest version of HP MPIO EVA DSM on all Windows
servers. The available MPIO DSM has exhibited LUN path failures on rare occasions. These LUN path
failures were not observed with HP MPIO P6000 DSM Version 4.02.00 or later.
NOTE: If you use HP P6000 SmartStart to install HP P6000 Command View on a Windows 2003
or 2008 management server, HP MPIO P6000 DSM 4.02.00 and DSM Manager are installed
automatically.
However, if you use HP P6000 SmartStart to install HP P6000 Command View on Windows 2012,
HP MPIO P6000 DSM 4.03.00 is installed.
You can download the latest DSM Manager and HP MPIO P6000 DSM from the following HP website:
http://www.hp.com/support/downloads
1. Under Storage, select Storage Software.
2. Under Storage Infrastructure Software, select Other Multi-Path Software-Windows.
3. Select Windows MPIO DSM for EVA.
4. Select the appropriate Windows operating system.
Workarounds 11
5. Do one of the following:
For MPIO DSM, select HP MPIO Full Featured DSM for P6000 EVA Disk Arrays.
For DSM Manager, select HP MPIO DSM (Device Specific Module) Manager for Full Featured
DSMs.
See the release notes included with the download file for more information.
Effective date
September 2013
12 Effective date