SCSI Storage Configuration
- W.Erber
Contents
SCSI Configuration Window Overview
To view or change the current virtual machine SCSI configuration, select SCSI in the left-hand pane of the Settings window. This opens the SCSI configuration window similar to the one shown below.
From this window, you can create virtual disk and tape container files using the Create Virtual Storage button. You can also attach virtual storage devices (both physical devices and container files) to the virtual machine (Add button). When selecting an existing virtual storage device, you can edit or remove it (Edit and Remove buttons are only visible if a device is selected) .
The Create Virtual Storage option is also available in the Tools menu of the Charon-SSP Manager. The functions provided are identical to the functions provided via the Virtual Machine Settings window shown above.
Creating a New Virtual Disk Container File
It is often convenient to use container files for virtual disk and tape devices. This section describes how to create disk container files.
To create a virtual disk container file, click on Create Virtual Storage in the SCSI device Virtual Machine Settings window. This displays the Create Virtual Storage dialog opened on the virtual disk tab as shown below.
To create a virtual disk container file, follow the instructions below:
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Before the disk can be used by the Solaris guest system, it must be added to the system configuration and formatted/labeled by the Solaris guest according to the customer specific requirements.
Creating a New Virtual Tape Container File
To create a virtual tape container file, click the Create Virtual Storage button in the SCSI device Virtual Machine Settings window. This opens the Create Virtual Storage window. Select the Virtual Tape tab.
To create a virtual tape container, follow the instructions below:
Specify a name for the virtual tape container file in the field Virtual tape name.
Select the location on the host filesystem for the container file by clicking on the location selection button and selecting the correct path.
Specify a size for the virtual tape file in megabytes (MB) in the field Tape size. The vtape file will expand automatically if more space is needed while writing to the tape.
Click on Create to create the virtual tape container file. Depending on the size of the container file, this may take some time.
Using a virtual tape:
Once a virtual tape device has been created, it can be added to the Charon-SSP configuration and used by the Solaris guest system. To simulate “swapping a tape” during guest system operation, the following steps are required:
1. Guest system: rewind tape if required, write content to it, and “eject” it:
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2. Host system: use sftp to rename/copy the original container file and to copy a new empty file with the same name in its place.
3. Guest system: display tape status (thereby loading the new file), rewind tape if required, and write content to it:
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Solaris tape device names have the format /dev/rmt/<device> where device can be a digit (e,g., /dev/rmt/0) or a combination of digits and certain letters (e.g., /dev/mnt/0n is the first drive set to no rewind).
Should the devices not exist after adding a virtual tape drive, boot the emulated SPARC guest system with the -r (reconfigure) parameter. Example: boot disk0 -r.
Adding or Editing a Virtual SCSI Device
To add a new virtual disk device, click the Add button.
To modify an existing virtual disk device, select it from the list of configured devices and click the Edit button. The Edit button appears when an existing virtual disk is selected.
In both cases, a window similar to the one below opens with the configuration parameters of the virtual SCSI device.
Charon-SSP does not place any restrictions on the SCSI bus and target ID configured for emulated SCSI devices, e.g., a virtual CD-ROM. However,
- Charon-SSP/4M normally expects the boot CD-ROM device to have SCSI ID 6 / LUN 0,
- Charon-SSP/4U normally expects the boot CD-ROM device to be on the external bus and SCSI ID 6 / LUN 0, and
- Charon-SSP/4V normally expects the boot CD-ROM device on the internal (primary) bus and SCSI ID 6 / LUN 0.
If you encounter the problem that the boot CD-ROM is not found when trying to boot from it, verify its expected location in the OBP environment (using the devalias command).
The following table lists the fields in the Add/Edit SCSI Device configuration window and describes their use.
Add/Edit virtual SCSI device configuration fields | |||||||||||
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| Fields | Description | ||||||||||
SCSI bus | Specify either the Primary SCSI Bus or the External SCSI Bus. Please note: Charon-SSP/4M has only one SCSI bus. | ||||||||||
SCSI ID | SCSI device target ID:
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LUN ID | SCSI device LUN ID. A SCSI device is identified by a combination of bus, target ID (SCSI ID), and LUN ID. This parameter must be configured to match the storage device configuration. Valid IDs are 0 through 7. Default value is 0.
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Removable | Default: OFF. If enabled, the emulator will start even if the device/file does not exist on the host. | ||||||||||
SCSI device type | Drop-down list of configurable device types. Available device types:
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SCSI device path | Click on the path button to specify the location of the virtual SCSI device. This will open a file browser. To sort the file browser display by name, click on the corresponding heading. Select an appropriate device or file using the file browser, or type the correct name in the file name field. Note: if you manually enter a device name instead of selecting a device from the file browser window, make sure that the file/device exists (relative to the path of the opened file browser) or is set to removable. The list below shows sample device paths for each SCSI device type option:
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Physical Disk Parameters on Charon-SSP
The Charon-SSP virtual machines offer additional options when adding physical disks as virtual SCSI devices. The windows for adding a new device and for editing an existing device contain the same fields. The configuration windows are different for Charon-SSP/4U/4V and Charon-SSP/4M because only Charon-SSP/4U and Charon-SSP/4V support a second SCSI bus. The two different configuration windows are shown below:
Add physical disk on Charon-SSP/4U/4V | Add physical disk on Charon-SSP/4M |
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The following table describes the additional parameters available for physical disks on Charon-SSP:
Additional physical disk parameters | |
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| Field | Description |
Pass through | You can select OFF (default) or ON. SCSI pass-through is used to allow direct access to SCSI devices. Such devices can be locally or remotely connected SCSI storage devices (e.g., local disks, iSCSI connected disks, Fibre Channel disks, etc.) and other SCSI devices that support the SCSI command set. On the host side, this feature depends on the generic SCSI driver (SG) capabilities of the host operating system. The emulator does not depend on particular adapter types. This feature is useful, for example, for using shared disks in cluster environments (fencing / persistent reservations) and special SCSI peripherals, such as tape robots or SCSI-connected serial devices and scanners. |
Serial Number | The serial number is a physical characteristic of hard disks and is used mainly to persistently and unambiguously identify iSCSI mapped disks (and possibly Fibre Channel disks), for which the device identification on the host (i.e. /dev/sdX) may change when the host system reboots. If the Serial Number field is enabled, the field SCSI device path is disabled. You can find the serial number using the Storage Manager that is started from the cloud-specific section in the Tools menu of the Charon-SSP Manager. |
Removing a Virtual Storage Device
To remove a virtual storage device, select the device in the Virtual Machine Settings SCSI configuration window, then click the Remove button. The device is removed immediately from the configuration. The Charon-SSP Manager does not ask for confirmation.
If the virtual SCSI storage device is attached to a container file, the file itself is not removed with the configuration.
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