EMCCommunityNetworkECN:Howtrespassing

worksusingALUA(Failovermode4)ona
VNX/CLARiiONstoragesystem?

Resolution:SinceFLARE26,AsymmetricActive/ActivehasprovidedanewwayforCLARiiON
arraystopresentLUNstohosts,eliminatingtheneedforhoststodealwiththeLUNownership
model.PriortoFLARE26,allCLARiiONarraysusedthestandardactive/passivepresentationfeature
whichoneSP"owns"theLUNandallI/OtothatLUNissentonlytothatSP.IfallpathstothatSPfail,
theownershipoftheLUNwas'trespassed'totheotherSPandthehostbasedpathmanagement
softwareadjustedtheI/Opathaccordingly.AsymmetricActive/Activeintroducesanewinitiator
FailoverMode(Failovermode4)whereinitiatorsarepermittedtosendI/OtoaLUNregardlessof
whichSPactuallyownstheLUN.Manualtrespass

whenamanualtrespassisissued(usingNavisphereManagerorCLI)toaLUNonaSPthatis
accessedbyahostwithFailoverMode1,subsequentI/OforthatLUNisrejectedovertheSPon
whichthemanualtrespasswasissued.ThefailoversoftwareredirectsI/OtotheSPthatownsthe
LUN.

AmanualtrespassoperationcausestheownershipofagivenLUNownedbyagivenSPtochange.If
thisLUNisaccessedbyanALUAhost(FailoverModeissetto4),andI/OissenttotheSPthatdoes
notcurrentlyowntheLUN,thiswouldcauseI/Oredirection.Insuchasituation,thearraybasedon
howmanyI/Os(thresholdof64000+/I/Os)aLUNprocessesoneachSPwillchangetheownership
oftheLUN.Path,HBA,switchfailure

IfahostisconfiguredwithFailoverMode1andallthepathstotheSPthatownsaLUNfail,theLUN
istrespassedtotheotherSPbythehostsfailoversoftware.

WithFailoverMode4,inthecaseofapath,HBA,orswitchfailure,whenI/Oroutestothenon
owningSP,theLUNmaynottrespassimmediately(dependingonthefailoversoftwareonthehost).
IftheLUNisnottrespassedtotheowningSP,FLAREwilltrespasstheLUNtotheSPthatreceives
themostI/OrequeststothatLUN.ThisisaccomplishedbythearraykeepingtrackofhowmanyI/Os
aLUNprocessesoneachSP.IfthenonoptimizedSPprocesses64,000ormoreI/Osthanthe
optimalSP,thearraywillchangetheownershiptothenonoptimalSP,makingitoptimal.SP
failure

IncaseofanSPfailureforahostconfiguredasFailoverMode1,thefailoversoftwaretrespassesthe
LUNtothesurvivingSP.

WithFailoverMode4,ifanI/OarrivesfromanALUAinitiatoronthesurvivingSP(nonoptimal),
FLAREinitiatesaninternaltrespassoperation.ThisoperationchangesownershipofthetargetLUN
tothesurvivingSPsinceitspeerSPisdead.Hence,thehost(failoversoftware)musthaveaccessto
thesecondarySPsothatitcanissueanI/Ounderthesecircumstances.Singlebackendfailure

BeforeFLARERelease26,ifthefailoversoftwarewasmisconfigured(forexample,asingleattach
configuration),asinglebackendfailure(forexample,anLCCorBCCfailure)wouldgenerateanI/O
errorsincethefailoversoftwarewouldnotbeabletotrythealternatepathtotheotherSPwitha
stablebackend.

Withrelease26ofFLARE,regardlessoftheFailoverModeforagivenhost,whentheSPthatowns
theLUNcannotaccessthatLUNduetoabackendfailure,I/OisredirectedthroughtheotherSPby
thelowerredirector.Inthissituation,theLUNistrespassedbyFLAREtotheSPthatcanaccessthe
LUN.Afterthefailureiscorrected,theLUNistrespassedbacktotheSPthatpreviouslyownedthe
LUN.SeetheEnablerformaskingbackendfailuressectionformoreinformation.Note:
InformationinthissolutionistakenfromtheWhitePaper"EMCCLARiiONAsymmetricActive/Active
Feature"FormoreinformationrefertoPrimusemc202744.
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