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Load balancing among multiple controllers of UltraPath

Created: May 31, 2019 03:27:29Latest reply: May 31, 2019 03:35:07 352 1 0 0 0
  Rewarded HiCoins: 0 (problem resolved)

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Environment: As shown in the following figure, a distributed switch is configured on the ESXi. Two vmkernel networks (vmk1 and vmk2) are added to the ESXi. UltraPath is installed on the ESXi and iSCSI Target on the four storage devices is added. After the configuration, load balancing takes effect only on P0 and P1 of SP/Controller A, the two ports in the SP/Controller B do not have data and do not work in load balancing mode.

The following information is found: The multipathing mechanism of the front-end controller can be classified into the following types:
1. A/A: Symmetric Active/Acivie: For a specific LUN, the target ports of the two storage controllers in the path are in the active / optimized (active/optimized) state. The two controllers communicate with each other at a high speed. One I/O is sent to the control end, and the two controllers can participate in the processing at the same time. When a controller is busy, the system does not need the load balancing software on the host to implement load balancing.
2. ALUA: Asymmetric Active/Active: For a specific LUN, the target port of one controller in its path is in the active / optimized (active/optimized) state, and the target port of the other controller is in the active / non-optimized (active/unoptimized) state. At a certain time, a LUN belongs to only one controller. To implement load balancing on both sides, task A is thrown to controller A and task B is thrown to controller B. For the same task, only one controller is controlled at any time.
3. A/P: Active/Passive: For a specific LUN, the target port of one controller in its path is in the active / optimized (active/optimized) state, and the target port of the other controller is in the standby (standby) state. The load balancing and task processing modes are similar to those of ALUA.

In this case, it seems that the ALUA mode is used. However, you can view the configuration in the memory. There is a Enable ALUA for the initiator attribute. By default, this option is not selected, and I do not select it during configuration.

Problem: 1. How to configure load balancing between controllers? What is the default mode? 2. If four network connections on the are used, load balancing can be implemented between controllers when load balancing is implemented within the control plane (A/A mode and how to configure the load balancing mode).

Featured Answers
olive.zhao
Admin Created May 31, 2019 03:35:07

Hello there!

The ALUA parameters can be selected based on the following requirements and conditions. For details about other models, see the corresponding product documentation.

It indicates the path switching mode. The system supports the following four modes:

Old version ALUA: It is used when the storage system of an earlier version is upgraded to the current version. 

Specific requirements:

The storage system version is upgraded from V300R003C10 or earlier to V300R003C20, V300R006 or later, or V300R005 to V300R006 or later.

Before the upgrade, the storage system has dual controllers and ALUA has been enabled.

Universal ALUA: This item is applicable to V300R003C20, V300R006, and later versions. 

Specific requirements:

The storage system version is V300R003C20, V300R006, or later.

The storage system is dual controllers or multiple controllers.

The operating systems of the hosts connected to the storage system are SUSE, Red Hat 6.X, Windows Server 2012 (using Emulex HBA cards), Windows Server 2008 (using Emulex HBA cards), and HP-UX 11i V3.

If ALUA is not used: It is used when the host does not support ALUA (for example, HP-UX 11i V2 host) or the ALUA is not required in actual application scenarios.

Special mode: This mode is applicable to V300R003C20, V300R006, and later versions. The operating system of the host connected to the storage system is different from that supported by the universal ALUA mode. 

Specific requirements:

The storage system version is V300R003C20, V300R006, or later.

The storage system is dual controllers or multiple controllers.

The operating systems of the hosts connected to the storage system are VMware, AIX, Red Hat 7.X, Windows Server 2012 (using QLogic HBA cards), and Windows Server 2008 (using Qlogic HBA cards).
View more
  • x
  • convention:

All Answers
Hello there!

The ALUA parameters can be selected based on the following requirements and conditions. For details about other models, see the corresponding product documentation.

It indicates the path switching mode. The system supports the following four modes:

Old version ALUA: It is used when the storage system of an earlier version is upgraded to the current version. 

Specific requirements:

The storage system version is upgraded from V300R003C10 or earlier to V300R003C20, V300R006 or later, or V300R005 to V300R006 or later.

Before the upgrade, the storage system has dual controllers and ALUA has been enabled.

Universal ALUA: This item is applicable to V300R003C20, V300R006, and later versions. 

Specific requirements:

The storage system version is V300R003C20, V300R006, or later.

The storage system is dual controllers or multiple controllers.

The operating systems of the hosts connected to the storage system are SUSE, Red Hat 6.X, Windows Server 2012 (using Emulex HBA cards), Windows Server 2008 (using Emulex HBA cards), and HP-UX 11i V3.

If ALUA is not used: It is used when the host does not support ALUA (for example, HP-UX 11i V2 host) or the ALUA is not required in actual application scenarios.

Special mode: This mode is applicable to V300R003C20, V300R006, and later versions. The operating system of the host connected to the storage system is different from that supported by the universal ALUA mode. 

Specific requirements:

The storage system version is V300R003C20, V300R006, or later.

The storage system is dual controllers or multiple controllers.

The operating systems of the hosts connected to the storage system are VMware, AIX, Red Hat 7.X, Windows Server 2012 (using QLogic HBA cards), and Windows Server 2008 (using Qlogic HBA cards).
View more
  • x
  • convention:

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