Cisco DCNM SAN Client Online Help

Key Concepts

The following terms are used throughout this chapter:

• Virtual device—The virtualized or proxy representation of the real device, which is registered with the name server and has a pWWN and FC ID. A virtual device exists as long as its real (physical) counterpart is online. The virtual device pWWN and FC ID must be unique and cannot clash with any real device pWWNs and FC IDs.
• Virtual domain—Reserved by SDV to assign FC IDs to virtual devices. If the switch that reserved the domain goes down, another switch takes over its role using the same domain.
• Primary device—The device that is configured as primary. By default, the primary device becomes the active device if it is online.
• Secondary device—The additional device that is configured. By default, the secondary device is standby.
• Active device—The device that is currently virtualized is called the active device. By default, the primary device becomes the active device if it is online. The active device is indicated by a (*) symbol.

Automatic Failover and Fallback

As of Cisco MDS NX-OS Release 4.1(1a), SAN device virtualization supports automatic failover and fallback configurations for the virtual devices. In all of the earlier releases, when there was a failure, you needed to manually configure the device as primary to make it active. With the introduction of automatic failover and fallback configurations, the active device is distinguished from the primary device indicated by a (*) symbol.

• Auto failover—When there is a failure, the failover auto attribute automatically shuts down the primary device and brings up the secondary device to active state. When the primary device comes back online, it requires user intervention to switchover.
• Auto failover with fallback—In addition to automatic failover, when the primary device comes back online after a failover, the primary device is brought to active state and the secondary device moved to standby state.

To configure automatic failover, use the attribute failover auto command in SAN device virtualization configuration mode. To configure automatic failover and fallback, use the attribute failover auto fallback command. To identify the active device, use the show sdv database command.

Resolving Fabric Merge Conflicts

Whenever two fabrics merge, SDV merges its database. A merge conflict can occur when there is a run-time information conflict or configuration mismatch. Run-time conflicts can occur due to:

• Identical pWWNs have been assigned to different virtual devices.
• The same virtual devices are assigned different pWWNs.
• The virtual device and virtual FC ID are mismatched.

A blank commit is a commit operation that does not contain configuration changes, and enforces the SDV configuration of the committing switch fabric-wide. A blank commit operation resolves merge conflicts by pushing the configuration from the committing switch throughout the fabric, which reinitializes the conflicting virtual devices. Exercise caution while performing this operation, as it can easily take some virtual devices offline.

Merge failures resulting from a pWWN conflict can cause a failure with the device alias as well. A blank commit operation on a merge-failed VSAN within SDV should resolve the merge failure in the device alias.

You can avoid merge conflicts due to configuration mismatch by ensuring that:

• The pWWN and device alias entries for a virtual device are identical (in terms of primary and secondary).
• There are no virtual device name conflicts across VSANs in fabrics.

SDV Requirements and Guidelines

Be aware of the following requirements and guidelines as you plan and configure SDV:

• SDV should be enabled on switches where devices that are part of SDV zones are connected.
• SDV does not work for devices connected to non-MDS switches.
• Broadcast zoning is not supported for a zone with a virtual device.
• IVR and SDV cannot be used for the same device. A SDV-virtualized device cannot be part of an IVR zone or zoneset.
• Virtual device names should be unique across VSANs because they are registered with the device alias server, which is unaware of VSANs. For example, if you have enabled SDV and have registered a name, vt1 in both VSAN 1 and VSAN 2, then the device alias server cannot store both entries because they have the same name.
• You cannot specify the same primary device for different virtual devices.
• SDV does not work with soft zoning ( Soft zoning means that zoning restrictions are applied only during interaction between the name server and the end device). If an end device somehow knows the FC ID of a device outside its zone, it can access that device; it does not work with the zone default-zone permit vsan operation (which would otherwise permit or deny traffic to members in the default zone).
• If devices are not already zoned with the initiators, then you can configure SDV virtual device zones with no negative impact. If they are already zoned, then zoning changes are required.
• The real device-virtual device zone cannot coexist with the real device-real device zone. If the real devices are not already zoned together, then you can configure the real device-virtual device zone with no negative impact. If these devices are already zoned, then adding the real device-virtual device zone may cause the zone activation to fail. If this occurs, then you must delete one of the zones before activation.

For example, a user attempts to create a configuration with zone A, which consists of I, the initiator, and T, the target (I,T), and zone B, which consists of a virtual initiator, VI, and real target, T (zone VI, T). Such a configuration would fail. Likewise, an attempt to configure zone C, which consists of an initiator, I, and target T, with zone D, which consists of an initiator, I, and virtual target, VT (zone I, VT), would also fail.

Guidelines for Downgrading SDV

As of MDS NX-OS Release 4.1(1a), SDV supports failover and fallback attribute configuration. Downgrading to an earlier release requires you to remove the attribute configurations before downgrading.

As of SAN-OS Release 3.1(3), SDV supports virtual initiators and LUN zoning. Consequently, in SAN-OS Releases 3.1(3) and later, if virtual initiators are configured or SDV devices are configured as LUN-based members of a zone, a configuration check will indicate that downgrading to SAN-OS Release 3.1(2) may be disruptive and is therefore not recommended.

Downgrading with Attributes Configured

As of MDS NX-OS Release 4.1(1a), SDV supports failover and fallback attribute configuration. To successfully downgrade to an earlier release, you must remove the attribute configurations before downgrading.

Downgrading with Virtual Initiators Configured

If SDV virtual initiators are configured, you will be unable to downgrade to SAN-OS Release 3.1(2).

This incompatibility only warns before a downgrade. We recommend that you remove the virtual initiator configuration or shut down the initiator port so that there are no inconsistencies in the downgraded version.

Note We also recommend that you trigger a manual discovery on all the switches before configuring the virtual initiators; in fact, you can trigger the discovery before proceeding to the downgrade by entering the following commands:
switch# discover scsi-target local os all
discovery started
switch# discover scsi-target remote os all
discovery started
switch#

Downgrading with SDV LUN Zoning Configured

The following are downgrade scenarios when SDV LUN zoning is configured:

• Real initiator and SDV virtual target with LUN
• SDV virtual initiator and real target with LUN
• SDV virtual initiator and SDV virtual target with LUN

In each of these cases, a configuration check is registered to prevent users from downgrading to SAN-OS Release 3.1(2). This incompatibility will be disruptive if you proceed with the downgrade.

To avoid the configuration check, delete all the LUN zone members from SDV zones, and then activate the zone set before the downgrade.

Configuring a Virtual Device

A virtual device is identified by an alphanumeric name of up to 32 characters and defines all the real devices (one primary and one or more secondary) that it represents. Upon the successful creation of a virtual device, the virtual device name is internally registered as the device alias name with the device alias database; the pWWN is automatically assigned by the system using Cisco Organizational Unique Identifier (OUI). A virtual device appears as a real, physical device. You can enumerate up to 128 devices for a virtual device. There is a limit of 4095 on the number of virtual devices that you can create in a single VSAN.

Note As of Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 3.1(2) and NX-OS Release 4.1(1a), SDV supports up to 1024 virtual devices per VSAN.

Detailed Steps

To configure a virtual device and commit it to the fabric configuration, follow these steps:

To configure a virtual target and commit it to the fabric configuration, follow these steps:

Step 1 Expand SAN in the Logical Domains pane, and then expand the fabric in which your VSAN resides.

Step 2 Expand the VSAN in which you want to create the virtual target and select SDV. You see the switches in the VSAN that you selected listed in the Information pane.

Step 3 In the Control tab, select enable from the drop-down menu in the Command column to enable SAN device virtualization for a particular switch in the VSAN.

Step 4 Click the Apply Changes icon to commit the configuration change.

Step 5 Click the CFS tab. Confirm that the SAN device virtualization feature is enabled for the switch.

Step 6 Click the Virtual Devices tab and then click the Create Row icon.

You see the Create Virtual Devices dialog box.

Step 7 Select the Virtual Device ID from the drop-down list (ranges from 1 to 4096).

Step 8 Enter a Name for the Virtual Device. Select the Virtual Domain and enter a Virtual FC ID for the virtual target.

Step 9 Check only the autoFailover check box or check the autoFailover and primFallback check boxes. For more information, see the “Automatic Failover and Fallback” section. You can also change the option in the Option column of the Virtual Devices tab.

Step 10 Click Create to create the virtual target.

Step 11 Click the CFS icon to commit and distribute the configuration changes.

Examples

Figure 21-5 shows a configuration that includes a new virtual device, vt1.

Figure 21-5 Creating a Virtual Device

The pWWN of the virtual target does not appear in the zoning end devices database in DCNM-SAN. If you want to zone the virtual device with a pWWN, you must enter it in the Add Member to Zone dialog box when creating a zone. However, if the device alias is in enhanced mode, the virtual device names appear in the device alias database in the DCNM-SAN zoning window. In this case, users can choose to select either the device alias name or enter the pWWN in the Add Member to Zone dialog box.

For more information, see the “Adding Zone Members” section.

This example shows the virtual device status without automatic failover configurations:

This example shows the virtual device status with automatic failover configuration, after the failover:

This example shows the virtual device status with automatic failover and fallback configurations, after fallback:

Configuring a Zone for a Virtual Device

After configuring a virtual device, you must create a zone that includes all the other real devices and the virtual device as members, and add this zone to a zone set, which you can activate. You can add the virtual device to the zone using the configured name and member type as the device alias.

Note This configuration process does not support interoperability. If you are working in interop-VSANs, we recommend that you configure the zone directly using the system-assigned pWWN of the virtual device.

To add the virtual device to a zone as a zone member, follow these steps:

Set the device alias mode to enhanced when using SDV (because the pWWN of a virtual device could change).

Examples

Figure 21-6 shows a virtual device-name device alias (vt1) zoned with the real devices activated; the primary device is online.

Figure 21-6 Zoning the Virtual Device with Real Devices

SDV is enabled on a switch and a virtual device is defined. SDV assigns a pWWN for the virtual device, and it is zoned based on the pWWN in a zone. If you later disable SDV, this configuration is lost. If you reenable SDV and create the virtual device using the same name, there is no guarantee that it will get the same pWWN again. You would have to rezone the pWWN-based zone. However, if you perform zoning based on the device-alias name, there are no configuration changes required if or when the pWWN changes.

Be sure you understand how device alias modes work before enabling them. Refer to Chapter 26, “Distributing Device Alias Services” for details and requirements about device alias modes.

Configuring a Virtual Device with a Static FC ID

Typically, the FC ID for the virtual device is assigned by the system. There is a virtual domain reserved and advertised for SDV devices and it is used when allocating the FC ID. The FC ID is registered with the name server and has the same FC4 properties as the primary device it represents.

When a fabric containing a virtual device configuration reboots, the virtual device’s domain or FC ID may change; there is no guarantee that the virtual device FC ID will remain the same because it is not a part of the configuration. You can define the FC ID for a virtual device to be static. Configuring a device to have a static FC ID ensures that the same FC ID is used for the virtual device configuration across NX-OS reboots, and it also provides the following benefits:

• Makes it easier for SAN administrators to plan and design the SAN (for example, administrators can assign virtual domains and FC IDs to be used by virtual devices).
• Improves monitoring and troubleshooting because the same FC ID is assigned to a virtual device on every instance.

Note This procedure is optional, but we recommend it. You can also configure a static domain ID. Only the domain part of the FC ID is static; other values are system-assigned.

If you are using SDV to virtualize devices for either AIX or HP-UX platforms, we recommend you create a static FC ID.

To configure a static FC ID when creating a virtual device, follow these steps:

Linking a Virtual Device with a Physical Device

After creating a virtual device and configuring it as part of a zone, you can define the primary device for it using the link command, which is also used to fail over to the secondary device.

Note When a link operation fails over to the secondary device, the virtual device is taken offline, and then brought online.

Prerequisites

As of MDS NX-OS Release 4.1(1a), the following conditions must be considered before linking a device:

• If you link to the secondary device which is currently active because of failover, the primary tag is moved to the secondary device and the secondary device becomes the primary device.

This example shows the status of the SDV database after the link operation:

• When the secondary device is active, if you link to a third device, and if the fallback attribute was not configured, the third device becomes the primary device but the secondary device continues to be the active device.

This example shows the status of the SDV database after the link operation:

• When the secondary device is active, if you link to a third device, and if the fallback attribute was configured, then the third device becomes the primary device as well as the active device.

This example shows the status of the SDV database after the link operation:

To link a virtual target with a physical target, follow these steps:

To link a virtual target with a physical target, follow these steps:

Step 1 Click the Real Devices tab and then click the Create Row icon.

Step 2 Select the Virtual Device ID from the pull-down list or enter an existing ID for the virtual target that you are linking with a physical target.

Step 3 Select the Real Device ID of the physical target that you are linking with the virtual target.

Step 4 Click either the pWWN or deviceAlias radio button, and select the appropriate pWWN or device alias from the pull-down menu. The Name field is automatically populated when you select the pWWN or device alias.

Step 5 Click either the primary or secondary radio button for the Map Type.

Step 6 Click the CFS icon to save and distribute these changes, or click Close to discard any unsaved changes.

Configuring LUN Zone Members for SDV Devices

You can configure LUN zone members for SDV devices. Following are the types of SDV LUN zone configurations for existing real devices and configured SDV devices:

• Real initiator (I1)
• Real target (T1) supporting LUNs from 0 to 12
• Virtual target (VT1) virtualizing the real target (T1)
• Virtual initiator (VI1) virtualizing real initiator (I1)

Real Initiator and SDV Virtual Target with LUN

In Example 21-1 a real initiator is zoned with an SDV virtual target (including the LUN).

Example 21-1 Real Initiator and SDV Virtual Target with LUN

SDV Virtual Initiator and Real Target with LUN

In Example 21-2 an SDV virtual initiator is zoned with a real target (including the LUN).

Example 21-2 SDV Virtual Initiator and Real Target with LUN

SDV Virtual Initiator and SDV Virtual Target with LUN

In Example 21-3 an SDV virtual initiator is zoned with an SDV virtual target (including the LUN).

Example 21-3

Discarding Changes

At any time, you can discard the uncommitted changes to the running configuration and release the fabric lock (prior to entering the sdv commit command). If you discard the pending changes, the configuration remains unaffected and the lock is released.

To discard uncommitted SDV configuration changes and release the lock, follow these steps:

Clearing SDV Changes

If you have performed a SDV task and have forgotten to release the lock by either committing or discarding the changes, an administrator can release the lock from any switch in the fabric. If the administrator performs this task, your changes to the pending database are discarded and the fabric lock is released.

Tip The pending database is only available in the volatile directory and is subject to being discarded if the switch is restarted.

To use administrative privileges and release a locked SDV session, use the clear sdv session command in EXEC mode.

Displaying SDV Information

To display the results of the last commit to the SDV database, enter this command:

To display the results of the last CFS SDV fabric merge for a VSAN, enter this command:

To display details about the SDV database, enter this command:

To display statistics about SDV for a VSAN, enter this command:

SDV Virtual Devices

SDV Real Devices

Related Document

Standards

RFCs

MIBs