Multipath SAN Deployment Support
Article: 20000041
Applies to: Release 6.x
Related Articles
Windows Pre-boot Environment 2.x
Linux Pre-boot Environment
Windows
VMware ESX
Linux
Related Articles
Windows Pre-boot Environment 2.x
The Windows Pre-boot Environment (WinPE) 2.x can be configured to take duplicate logic disks created by SAN multipath I/O or all SAN LUNs offline.
For more details, refer to
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749466.aspx.
Also, note that this change is global and will affect all target servers that PXE boot WinPE.
| 1. |
Create a temporary directory to mount the WinPE WIM file, e.g. mkdir c:\mount.
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| 2. |
Start the Windows PE Tools Command Prompt and mount the appropriate WIM,
e.g. imagex /mountrw <InstallPath>\WAIK\Tools\PETools\<arch>\winpe.wim 1 c:\mount.
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| 3. |
Run the setsanpolicy command, e.g.
setsanpolicy.cmd c:/mount #
where # is:
1 = Mounts all available SAN storage devices [default]
2 = Mounts only one disk on a shared bus and disables duplicate disks created by SAN Multipath I/O
3 = Does not mount any SAN storage devices.
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| 4. |
Unmount the image and commit the changes, e.g. imagex /unmount /commit c:\mount.
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| 5. |
Repeat steps 2 through 4 for each architecture.
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| 6. |
Regenerate the WinPE PXE images using the PXE Configuration Utility.
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Linux Pre-boot Environment
The Linux Pre-boot environment (LinuxPE) is not multipath aware. When using tools
such as Altiris' showdisk under LinuxPE, all paths to the logical drives will be displayed.
Windows
Before executing a Windows scripted install, Sysprep image capture, or Sysprep image deployment, make the following modifications:
| • |
WinPE environment needs to be configured to take duplicate logical disks created by SAN multipath I/O offline by setting the SAN policy to 2.
Refer to the Windows Pre-boot Environment 2.x section for the configuration steps.
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| • |
For Windows Server 2003, install the proper DSM driver package prior to performing a Sysprep image capture so the
drivers are available when the image is deployed. Consult the storage solution documentation before performing the DSM installation.
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| • |
For Windows Server 2008, update the unattend and sysprep files used during scripted installs and Sysprep image deployments to include
the Windows feature Multipath I/O located under the Microsoft Windows Foundation Package. When performing this step, it is recommended
to use the System Image Manager utility to edit the unattend and sysprep files. This utility is included in the Microsoft Windows AIK install.
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VMware ESX
For VMware ESX, no additional steps are required. For more information, refer to
VMware SAN System Design and Deployment Guide
Linux
Linux distributions contained drivers that were multipath aware. With newer Linux versions, updates, and service packs,
these drivers no longer contain that functionality. The device mapper solution is required for these new Linux versions
to be multipath aware.
For more information about Linux SAN with Device Mapper Multipath, refer to
Booting Linux x86 and x86_64 systems from a Storage Area Network with Device Mapper Multipath.
The following Linux operating systems support device mapper multipath SAN deployments:
| • |
Red Hat Enteprise Linux 5.2 and greater with using mpath as a kernel option during scripted installs |
| • |
SUSE LINUX 10 SP2 and greater with single path SAN configuration while installing SLES10 and then configuring multipath after the deployment |
| • |
SUSE LINUX 11 |
IMPORTANT: Deploying an image captured from Red Hat EL 5.x or SUSE LINUX 11 with multipath enabled will fail with the target server
not able to boot after the deployment is complete.
The image contains the reference server's LUN WWID. This ID is not updated after the image is deployed to the new target server causing a boot failure since the hard drive cannot be found.
Deploying the image to the same reference server from where the image was captured will boot properly.
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