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Table of Contents
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General description
CHARON-AXP supports emulation of DEC-KGPSA-CA PCI Fibre Channel adapter.
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- Fabric virtualization mode (mapping to disk images and host/SAN physical disks). This is default mode.
- Usage of "presentation mode" of external storage controllers to automatically configure KGPSA-CA disks correspondent to the LUNs provided by the external storages
- Pass Through mode (using a specific CHARON PCI Pass Through driver to work through the EMULEX LightPulse PCI/PCI-X/PCIe FC adapter plugged into host)
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Loading KGPSA storage adapter
Syntax for loading KGPSA-CA storage adapter:
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Configuration parameters
The KGPSA-CA PCI FC adapter emulation has the following configuration parameters:
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Parameter | storage_controller_path_id | |||
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Type | Text String | |||
Value | Instructs the CHARON VM to create a set of virtual FC devices and connect to the virtual system through the virtual KGPSA FC Adapter. In this mode WWID and UDID values are taken from the storage controller directly. Note that some storage controllers may not support aquiring UDID, in this case this way of mapping cannot be used in case of OpenVMS (Tru64 Unix is Ok)! Syntax:
where the "Storage controller path ID" parameter is a storage (for example SAN) controller path ID. This ID can be obtained from the "Host Device Check" utility ("Storage Controllers" section). Once specified, all the disks attached to the storage are automatically mapped as disk units to CHARON VM. Example:
It is also possible to use wildcards for specifying the ID number: Example:
In this case CHARON will collect the LUNs from all the matching paths. This syntax works disregarding whether Windows MPIO is active or not. If it is active, CHARON VM uses "active" path (because it works through Windows), if Windows MPIO is OFF, CHARON VM selects the first matching path (and warns you in the LOG file). Note that LUNs obtained by usage of "storage_controller_path_id" parameter is not re-enumerated on reboot, so this mode is possible to use in case of shared disks clusters. |
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Parameter | host_bus_location | ||
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Type | Text String | ||
Value | Establish connection between virtual DEC-KGPSA-CA PCI FC adapter and physical EMULEX LightPulse PCI/PCI-X/PCIe FC adapter (pass through mode) Syntax:
where X, Y, and Z describe location of physical EMULEX LightPulse PCI/PCI-X/PCIe FC adapter in the host computer (see 695412341 for details). Example:
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wwid
Parameter | wwid[N] N is 0..32766 (no more than 255 units) | ||
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Type | Text String | ||
Value | Sets WWID for emulated KGPSA adapter unit in case if the WWID can not be obtained directly from the device CHARON VM is mapped to. For example in case of disk images or local physical drives CHARON VM cannot get its WWID from the the host system, so it is automaticaly introduce some generated WWID. In case if this WWID is not acceptable it can be replaced with the custom one using the "wwid" parameter. Syntax:
Example:
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Parameter | container[N] N is 0..32766 (no more than 255 units) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Type | Text String | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Value | Possible values of the parameter are strings in one of the following forms:
This parameter is initially not set, thus creating NO storage elements on the controller.. |
media_type
Parameter | media_type[N] N is 0..32766 (no more than 255 units) | |
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Type | Text String | |
Value | Instructs CHARON VM 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 VM 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:
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removable
Parameter | removable[N] N is 0..32766 (no more than 255 units) | |
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Type | Boolean | |
Value | When set to "true", the removable configuration parameter instructs CHARON VM to report the corresponding virtual FC device as removable. By default the removable configuration parameter is set to "false". Example:
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geometry
Parameter | geometry [N] N is 0..32766 (no more than 255 units) | ||||||||||||||
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Type | Text String | ||||||||||||||
Value | This formatted string value specifies the explicit geometry of the disk storage element. The string format is <X>”/”<Y>[“/”<Z>][“/”<B>] or <X>”,”<Y>[“,”<Z>][“,”<B>] where:
If this parameter is not set, CHARON VM will configure the geometry based on the most probable disk type. Initially not set. Example:
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use_io_file_buffering
Parameter | use_io_file_buffering[N] N is 0..32766 (no more than 255 units) | |
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Type | Text String | |
Value | Instructs CHARON VM to enable host operating system I/O cache on reading/writing operations. The following values are possible:
Note 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:
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io_queue_depth
Parameter | io_queue_depth[N] N is "XXYY" number, where:
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Type | Numeric | |
Value | Specifies KZPBA I/O requests (read or write) for a given unit in a range 2..128 Setting this parameter enables KZPBA instance to run up-to the specifiied 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 the purpose. By default parallel execution of I/O requests is disabled. Example:
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min_n_of_threads
Parameter | min_n_of_threads | |
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Type | Numeric | |
Value | Instructs KZPBA I/O to reserve a given number of working threads in a range 1..64, thus improving the performance. All units of KZPBA 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:
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Mapping to host resources
There are 3 modes of KGPSA-CA mapping to system resources:
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Fabric virtualization mode
In this mode KGPSA-CA PCI FC adapter can be directly mapped to physical disks (both local and iSCSI) and disk images as shown in the following example:
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CHARON-AXP can utilize so called "presentation mode" of the storage controller it maps to.
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Pass Through mode
The CHARON PCI Pass Through mode allows connection between virtual DEC-KGPSA-CA PCI FC adapter and physical EMULEX LightPulse PCI/PCI-X/PCIe FC adapter plugged into host’s PCI/PCI-X/PCIe slot.
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Installation of EMULEX LightPulse PCI/PCI-X/PCIe FC adapter driver
- Install the EMULEX LightPulse PCI/PCI-X/PCIe FC adapter (see below for a list of supported models) to some spare PCI/PCI-X/PCIe slot of the host system
- Boot a Windows operating system
- Install the EMULEX LightPulse PCI/PCI-X/PCIe FC adapter driver from the following directory "C:\Program Files\CHARON\Drivers\EMULEX_X.X.0.XXXXX" by choosing the "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)" option and then selecting the "emulex_lp_ppt_amd64.inf" file.
- Direct Windows to use this custom driver instead of the default one:
- Type "gpedit.msc" in the "Search programs and files" field under "Start" menu, press "Enter"
- In the appearing applet choose: Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> Device Installation Restrictions -> Prevent Installation of Devices not described by other policy settings
Change the default "Not configured" to "Disabled"; press "Ok" to apply,
- Reboot the host
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Collecting the parameters for mapping
There are 2 ways of getting the required parametrs for mapping virtual KGPSA-CA to EMULEX LightPulse PCI/PCI-X/PCIe FC adapter plugged into host’s PCI/PCI-X/PCIe slot:
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Non-US-EN installations of Windows may present “Location:” string in local language, but "host_bus_location" parameter requires English notation, so the words “PCI”, “bus”, “device”, and “function” must be specified in English.
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Configuration of KGPSA-CA in pass through mode
FCMGR utility description
To configure KGPSA-CA adapter in pass through mode a special SRM console utility "FCMGR" is used (it has the same functionality as the "WWIDMGR" utility of the native HP Alpha hardware).
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Configuration steps using FCMGR utility
Once the configuration steps described above are done, start the CHARON VM and wait for the P00>>> prompt.
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