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Configuration parameters

The KGPSA-CA PCI FC adapter emulation has the following configuration parameters:

host_bus_location

Parameter host_bus_location

Type Text String

Value

Pass Through mode only !

Establish connection between virtual DEC-KGPSA-CA PCI FC adapter and physical EMULEX LightPulse PCI/PCI-X/PCIe FC adapter (Pass Through mode)

Syntax:

load KGPSA <controller name> host_bus_location="/dev/kgpsa<X>"

Example:

load KGPSA FGA host_bus_location="/dev/kgpsa0"

wwid

Parameter

wwid[N]

N is 0..32766 (no more than 255 units)

Type Text String

Value

Sets WWID for emulated KGPSA adapter unit.

Syntax:

set <controller name> wwid[unit-number]="XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX"

Example:

set FGA wwid[2]="6008-05F3-0005-2950-BF8E-0B86-A0C7-0001"

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container

Parameter

container[N]

N is 0..32766 (no more than 255 units)

Type

Text String

Value

Possible values of the parameter are strings in one of the following forms:

Physical disk

"/dev/sd<L>", where "L" is letter, for example "/dev/sdb"
"/dev/disk/by-id/..." - addressing by the disk ID, for example "/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST1000DM003-9YN162_S1D01QJ4"
"/dev/disk/by-label/..." - addressing by the disk label, for example "/dev/disk/by-label/MyStorage"

"/dev/disk/by-uuid/..." - addressing by the disk UUID, for example "/dev/disk/by-uuid/0e808a2f-cdd3-4944-a245-f729ffd73882"
Please note that existing data on such a disk may be destroyed, depending on how it is used in the emulator.

Note
"/dev/sd<L>" addressing is not persistent, so it is strongly recommended to use "/dev/disk/by-id/wwn-*" syntax instead to refer the disk by its WWID - especially in the enviroments utilizing FC and SAN storages.

These disks must not be formatted by the host OS.

Example:

set FGA container[0]="/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST1000DM003-9YN162_S1D01QJ4"

It is also possible to use not a whole disk, but previously created partitions on it. In this case the syntax is the following: "/dev/sd<L><N>" where N is the number of partition to be used.

Example:

set FGA container[0]="/dev/sdc3"

Loop (virtual block) devices
- "/dev/loop<N>"
  Example:
  set FGA container[100]="/dev/loop0"
Multipath disk
- "/dev/dm-<N>"
- "/dev/mapper/mpath<N>"
- "/dev/mapper/disk<N>"
  Be careful not to destroy all the information from the disk dedicated to CHARON-AXP by mistake.
  These disks must not be formatted by the host OS.
  Example:
  
  set FGA container[200]="/dev/dm-0"
File representing a physical disk of the HP Alpha system (disk image)
- [<drive>":\"<path-name>”\”]<file-name>[“.vdisk”]
  These files can be created from scratch with "mkdskcmd" utility. Data and OS disk backups are transferred from the original system via tapes or network and restored into these container files.
  Mapping may also include the full path (recommended), for example: "/my_disks/my_boot_disk.vdisk"
  Example:
  
  set FGA container[401]="my_dka401.vdisk"

This parameter is initially not set, thus creating NO storage elements on the controller.

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media_type

Parameter

media_type[N]

N is 0..32766 (no more than 255 units)

Type

Text String

Value

Instructs CHARON-AXP to use the supplied value as the PRODUCT field in the FC INQUIRY data returned to a software running on virtual HP Alpha system in response to FC INQUIRY command.

If not specified, CHARON-AXP attempts to guess the FC INQUIRY data based on virtual FC device type and underlying container (which is specified in the corresponding container configuration parameter).

Initially is not specified.

Example:

set FGA media_type[0]="HSZ70"

removable

Parameter

removable[N]

N is 0..32766 (no more than 255 units)

Type Boolean

Value

When set to "true", the removable configuration parameter instructs CHARON-AXP to report the corresponding virtual FC device as removable.

By default the removable configuration parameter is set to "false".

Example:

set FGA removable[400]=true

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geometry

It is

possiblle

possible to specify each parameter independently of another one. The following syntax is used for that:

set FGA geometry[300]="*,*,*,16777210"

Parameter

geometry[N]

N is 0..32766 (no more than 255 units)

Type

Text String

Value

This formatted string value specifies the explicit geometry of the disk storage element.

The string format is <X>”/”<Y>[“/”<Z>] or <X>”,”<Y>[“,”<Z>][“,”<B>] where:

X corresponds to the number of sectors per track
Y corresponds to the number of tracks per cylinder
Z corresponds the number of cylinders on the unit. If omitted, Z is calculated based on X, Y and the total number of sectors on the unit that reflects the size of the disk storage element. This is an optional parameter.
B corresponds toThe to the total size of the disk (in blocks) reported to the guest OS. If omitted it is calculated automatically. This is an optional parameter.

If this parameter is not set, CHARON-AXP will configure the geometry based on the most probable disk type.

Initially not set.

Example:

set FGA geometry[201] = "255/255"

Info

use_io_file_buffering

Parameter

use_io_file_buffering[N]

N is 0..32766 (no more than 255 units)

Type

Boolean

Value

When set to "true", instructs CHARON-AXP to enable host operating system I/O cache on read/write operations.

Note that this caching has a significant effect only in case of mapping to disk containers, not physical drives.

When enabled, host operating system I/O cache may significantly improve I/O performance of the virtual system. At the same time maintaining I/O cache requires additional host resources (CPU and memory) which may negatively affect overall performance of the virtual system.

Initially is set to "false".

Example:

set FGA use_io_file_buffering[300]=true

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io_queue_depth

Parameter

io_queue_depth[N]

N is 0..32766 (no more than 255 units)

Type Numeric

Value

Specifies KGPSA I/O requests (read or write) for a given unit in a range 2..128

Setting this parameter enables KGPSA instance to run up-to the specified numbers of I/O requests (read or write) for unit N in parallel, thus improving the performance.

The default value set by controller is optimal for most of the cases. It may be needed to enlarge this number if guest OS I/O queue for a certain unit contains too much pending entries. In this case the value should be equal to an average size of the queue, collected statistically.

Please do not set this parameter without clear understanding of the purpose.

By default parallel execution of I/O requests is disabled.

Example:

set FGA io_queue_depth[603]=4

min_n_of_threads

Parameter

min_n_of_threads

Type Numeric

Value

Instructs KGPSA I/O to reserve a given number of working threads in a range 1..64, thus improving the performance.

All units of KGPSA instance share the I/O threads.

The default value is equal to number of units plus 2.

For optimization it is possible to set this parameter to sum of the "io_queue_depth" parameters for each unit plus 2. This assumption seems optimal for most of the cases.

Please do not set this parameter without clear understanding the purpose.

Example:

set FGA min_n_of_threads=16

When a disk image connected to an emulated KGPSA-CA controller is dismounted by OpenVMS, it is disconnected from CHARON-AXP and can be manipulated. It can be replaced with a different disk image if it keeps the same name. This capability may be useful when designing back-up and restore procedures. When copying CHARON-AXP disk images while CHARON-AXP is running, please take care to minimize the risk of overloading a heavily loaded CHARON-AXP host system. For example, using a sequential series of simple ftp binary copies is less resource intensive and thus less disruptive than multiple, simultaneous copies.

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The following is a list of EMULEX LightPulse PCI/PCI-X/PCIe FC adapters supported by CHARON-AXP PCI Pass Through driver and suitable for emulation of KGPSA-CA PCI FC adapter in CHARON PCI Pass Through mode:

Supported	Not Supported	Not tested
LP8000 LP9000 LP9002 LP9802 LP10000 LP10000DC LP10000-S LPX1000 LP11002 LPe11002 (FC2242SR, A8003A) LPe1105 LPe12002 (AJ762B)	LPe1150 (FC2142SR, A8002A)	LPe11000

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To build PPT driver for EMULEX LightPulse PCI/PCI-X/PCIe FC do the following:

Step Description

1

Make sure that the required building tools and include files are installed. If they are absent install them:

# yum

# yum groupinstall "Development Tools"

# yum

# yum install

kernel

kernel kernel-headers kernel-devel

Info

The kernel version must match the version of the installed kernel-headers (i.e. this packages must have same versions. It can be verified via "rpm -q -a | grepkernel-" )

Check that the "kernel", the "kernel-devel" and the "kernel-headers" have the same version, and ensure that system is booted from this kernel version (not from some older one and etc) with "uname -a" command.

2

Open xterm and change the default directory to "/opt/charon/drivers/kgpsa":

# cd

# cd /opt/charon/drivers/kgpsa

3

Issue "make clean; make" commands to build kernel object:

# make

# make clean; make

It is prohibited to use a module built on a certain version of kernel on another one.

4 Check that there are no compilation errors and the file "ppt_kgpsa.ko" has been built

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To install PPT driver for EMULEX LightPulse PCI/PCI-X/PCIe FC do the following:

Step Description

1

Unload standard "lpfc" driver; to do that issue the following command:

# rmmod

# rmmod lpfc

2

Load "ppt_kgpsa.ko" driver; to do that issue the following command:

# insmod

# insmod ppt_kgpsa.ko

3

Issue "dmesg" command and check that no error appeared during the driver loading, also check that the driver has found all KGPSA devices.
Example
Example:

# dmesg

# dmesg | grep KGPSA; ls -la /dev/kgpsa*Found KGPSA with VENDOR_ID=10DF DEVICE_ID=FE00 Found KGPSA with VENDOR_ID=10DF DEVICE_ID=FE00 crw-------. 1 root root 240, 0 Nov 28 17:47 /dev/kgpsa0 crw-------. 1 root root 240, 1 Nov 28 17:47 /dev/kgpsa1

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To add PPT driver for EMULEX LightPulse PCI/PCI-X/PCIe FC to Linux startup do the following:

Step Description

1 Disable auto-loading of Linux standard "lpfc" driver on boot. To do that add "blacklist lpfc" to the black list file "/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf"

2

Copy the KGPSA-CA kernel module to the location of Linux kernel modules, for example:

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# cp

# cp /opt/charon/drivers/kgpsa/ppt_kgpsa.ko /lib/modules/3.10.9-200.fc20.x86_64/kernel/drivers/scsi/

The particular path may be different, depending on the kernel version and Linux distribution.

3

Enable auto load of the module:

# echo

# echo ppt_kgpsa > /etc/modules-load.d/ppt_kgpsa.conf

4

Regenerate new "initramfs" image with "mkinitrd":

# mkinitrd

# mkinitrd -f /boot/initramfs-3.10.9-200.fc20.x86_64.img 3.10.9-200.fc20.x86_64

The particular path may be different, depending on the kernel version and Linux distribution.

...

It provides the following functionality:

Command Description

fc rescan {/verbose}

Scans connected SAN using FC adapters, discovers FC ports, storage controllers, logical units and then builds volatile FC database.

The "/verbose" qualifier enables FC communication trace on console (for diagnostic and troubleshooting).

fc show {adapter | port | device}

Displays corresponding part of volatile FC database.

fc set {boot | dump} udid <X>

Fills the environment variables wwid0..wwid3 and n1..n4 to identify path(s) to logical unit with the specified UDID.

These variables are later used by "INIT" to create device database entries and by OpenVMS/Tru64 to get access to boot and dump disks.

This command does NOT make any change to other environment variables.

fc set {boot | dump} wwid <X>

Fills the environment variables wwid0..wwid3 and n1..n4 to identify path(s) to logical unit with the specified WWID.

These variables are later used by "INIT" to create device database entries and by OpenVMS/Tru64 to get access to boot and dump disks.

This command does NOT make any change to other environment variables.

This parameter is useful if UDID is absent.

Note

Only right part of the displayed WWID is used for specification, for example:

P00>>>fc res
polling for units on kgpsa0, slot 2, bus 0, hose 0 ...
pga0.0.0.2.0 PGA0 F/W Rev 2.72A2
WWN 1000-0000-0263-0040
fabric WWN 2003-0060-0263-0040
directory WWN 20fc-0060-0263-0040
port 020100 CED 8GSH 0 F88V
WWN 5000-1fe0-0000-0bf1
lun 0000000000000000 DEC HSG80CCL V88F
UDID:-1 WWID:01000010:6000-1fe0-0000-0bf0-3030-3030-373f-3f3f
lun 0000000000000100 COMPAQ RZ1ED 0000
UDID:-1 WWID:01000010:6000-1fe0-0000-0bf0-3030-3030-3030-3030
P00>>>fc set boot wwid 6000-1fe0-0000-0bf0-3030-3030-3030-3030

fc clear

Clears environment variables wwid0..wwid3 and n1..n4, which automatically disable (but do NOT delete) device database entries representing FC attached devices.

This command does NOT affect volatile FC database.

...

The CHARON-AXP FC Fabric presentation mode allows to use Linux FC HBA directly. When using this mode, there is no need to load KGPSA adapter(s) as it was described before. The following syntax has to be used instead:

Example:

load kgpsa_generic_storage PGA interface="host3"

...

# cat /sys/class/fc_host/host3/port_name
0x10000090faa00a31
# cat /sys/class/fc_host/host4/port_name
0x10000090faa00a32
# cat /sys/class/fc_host/host6/port_name
0x10000000c923ea51

So the names are:

Host	Mapping	Port name
3	Lancer-X, port 0 ("3:0:0:0")	0x10000090faa00a31
4	Lancer-X, port 1 ("3:0:0:1")	0x10000090faa00a32
6	LP8000 single port	0x10000000c923ea51

...

Name of FC, SCSI host or adapter's port/node name, defining a connection to Linux FC HBA, for example:

Mapping	Description
fc_host6	Emulation over Linux SG (FC) host 6
host6	Emulation over Linux SG (FC) host 6
2000-0000-C923-EA51	Emulation over Linux SG (FC) host given with port/node name
0x20000000C923EA51	Emulation over Linux SG (FC) host given with port/node name
wwn-0x20000000C923EA51	Emulation over Linux SG (FC) host given with port/node name

...

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trace_level

Value	Description
0	none (default)
1	All failures and suspects
2	SCSI, ELS/CT request flow
3	MB/IOCB request flow

...

Note
This parameter is needed for debugging puproses only, so it is strongly recommended not to specify any value without particular instructions from Stromasys.

Value	Description
sync	synchronous
async	asynchronous (default)

...

The way the emulation deals with fabric:

Value	Description
auto	Delegates to Linux if supported, otherwise emulates
no	Delegates to Linux (real physical fabric port connected too)
yes	Emulates

...

The list of the LUNs to be excluded. If empty (default), nothing is excluded.
No multi line is possible for this parameter; the maximum number of symbols inside the double quotes is 255. Use "lun_include" parameter instead if a lot of LUNs must be excluded to specify only the included LUNs.

Example:

load kgpsa_generic_storage PGA lun_exclude="6008-05F3-0005-2950-C758-BCC2-E88B-0007,6008-05F3-0005-2950-8B03-E26B-E231-0005"

Note
lun_exclude parameter cannot exclude storage mapped to LUN 0 because of its special function.

lun_include

The list of the LUNs to be included. If empty (default), all LUNs are included.
No multi line is possible for this parameter; the maximum number of symbols inside the double quotes is 255. Use "lun_exclude" parameter instead if a lot of LUNs must be included to specify only the excluded LUNs.

Example:

load kgpsa_generic_storage PGA lun_include="6008-05F3-0005-2950-C758-BCC2-E88B-0007,6008-05F3-0005-2950-8B03-E26B-E231-0005"

...

This approach of FC emulation downgrades all attached devices to the specifically defined version of SCSI. This is done to make legacy guest operating systems happy with attached modern devices.

Value (ANSI SCSI version)	Description
any	Any version
v1	SCSI-1
v2	SCSI-2
v3	SCSI-3
v3_SPC1	SCSI-3, primary command level 1
v3_SPC2	SCSI-3, primary command level 2 (default)
v3_SPC3	SCSI-3, primary command level 3
v3_SPC4	SCSI-3, primary command level 4

...

This parameter controls serialization of the SCSI requests.

Value	Description
false	Responses delivered to the emulated KGPSA card in order they were submitted to Linux. This is the default value.
true	Responses delivered to the emulated KGPSA card in order they were completed by Linux

...

This parameter sets limitation of the SCSI queue depth per LUN

Value	Description
unlimited	Linux SG I/O applies limitation of 16 I/Os. Requests are submitted unless write to SG I/O fails. This is the default value.
1...16	Only the specified number of the requests are submitted in parallel.

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Versions Compared

Old Version 70

New Version 71

Key

Configuration parameters

host_bus_location

wwid

container

media_type

removable

geometry

use_io_file_buffering

io_queue_depth

min_n_of_threads

trace_level

lun_include

Page Comparison

Versions Compared

Old Version 70

New Version 71

Key

Configuration parameters

host_bus_location

wwid

container

media_type

removable

geometry

use_io_file_buffering

io_queue_depth

min_n_of_threads

trace_level

lun_include