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PowerVC 2.2.0 - Tape media allocation to LPARs/VMs

  • 1.  PowerVC 2.2.0 - Tape media allocation to LPARs/VMs

    Posted Thu February 01, 2024 08:39 PM

    Hello all,

    How do we map tape drives and VTL via PowerVC to VM's

    Can this be done when a vm is deployed?

    Any setup documentation will be greatly appreciated.

    Warm Regards,

    Sasi



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    Sasi Chand
    Humble - Engineer
    Freelance
    Wellington
    New Zealand
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  • 2.  RE: PowerVC 2.2.0 - Tape media allocation to LPARs/VMs

    Posted Fri February 02, 2024 03:48 AM

    Hi,

    These links may help you:

     - https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/powervc/2.1.0?topic=storage-register-fibre-channel-tape-drives

     - https://community.ibm.com/community/user/power/blogs/chhavi-agarwal1/2019/01/10/registering-fibre-channel-tape-drives

    We have implemented this, though still on 2.1.1.

    Phill.



    ------------------------------
    Phill Rowbottom
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: PowerVC 2.2.0 - Tape media allocation to LPARs/VMs

    Posted Fri February 02, 2024 04:22 PM

    Hi Phill,

    Thanks for the information.

    I have got this far.

    1. Was able to register the VTL/Tapes device.
    2. Create a tape volume and attach it to a VM/LPAR (AIX)

    What I really need is to separate the Tape I/O on say fcs0/fsc1 and keep the Disk I/O on say fcs6/fcs7. Currently when I deploy a VM using a storage connectivity group consisting of port group fcs6/fcs7 (for Disk I/O), this works as expected but when I create a volume for tape to be attached to a VM using storage template "Tapes" it's basically gets zoned to the same FC ports as the disks.

    The default Storage template created while registering the tape does not give any option to define any paths to FC initiator ports where tape drive is connected.

    Any assistance will be highly appreciated.

    Warm Regards,

    Sasi



    ------------------------------
    Sasi Chand
    Humble - Engineer
    Freelance
    Wellington
    New Zealand
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: PowerVC 2.2.0 - Tape media allocation to LPARs/VMs

    Posted Mon February 05, 2024 04:11 AM

    No experience with PowerVC, but when considering LPM, the only way to keep tape I/O separate from disk I/O is to have the tapes on a separate fabric, otherwise LPM will produce mappings where the access is mixed on the same cards.

    Note that while the recommendation to use separate cards is still around, I haven't seen any issues since we've moved away from 4Gbps FC, so as long as you aren't crossing ISLs, you shouldn't have any problems.



    ------------------------------
    José Pina Coelho
    IT Specialist at Kyndryl
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: PowerVC 2.2.0 - Tape media allocation to LPARs/VMs

    Posted Mon February 05, 2024 05:01 AM
    Edited by Phill Rowbottom Mon February 05, 2024 05:25 AM

     Hi Sasi,

    PowerVC doesn't have any supported way of achieving that.  The Tape zoning is a pluggable storage driver.  Pluggable storage drivers don't support Storage templates & IPGs, which is what you would overwise use to separate different types of storage on the initiator end.

    Pluggable storage round-robins the vFC mapping across all FCs in the frame. There isn't really a way that you can instruct PowerVC to do anything different.

    We initially started with separate fabrics for tape, but this also isn't supported by PowerVC. 

    If you're using virtual fabrics to separate tape & disk, in reality, everything is hitting the same switches and there isn't a real separation.

    Phill.



    ------------------------------
    Phill Rowbottom
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: PowerVC 2.2.0 - Tape media allocation to LPARs/VMs

    Posted Mon February 05, 2024 10:34 PM

    Hi Sasi,

    You can try this by following the below steps:-

    Create an SCG with IPG and create 2 IPGS eg: IPG_tape: fcs0, fcs1 ports, IPG_data:fcs2, fc3

    Now update the storage template to use the required IPG

    FC Tape Template you can use the below

    POST /v3/<template_id>/extra_specs 
Body: 
{ 
    "extra_specs": 
    { 
        "drivers:init_port_group": "IPG_tape" 
    } 
}

    Similarly update the data volume template to use IPG_data

    You can also use the below CLI also to update the volume template

    source /opt/ibm/powervc/powervcrc
    cinder type-key <tape-template-name-or-id> set "drivers:init_port_group"='IPG_tape'
    cinder type-key <data-template-name-or-id> set "drivers:init_port_group"='IPG_tape'
    You can get the template-name-id using the below command
    cinder type-list

    And then try to perform attachment it should pick the paths according.

    Let us know if you are able to proceed with the above steps.

    Thanks & Regards,

    Chhavi Agarwal



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    CHHAVI AGARWAL
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: PowerVC 2.2.0 - Tape media allocation to LPARs/VMs

    Posted Tue February 06, 2024 04:20 AM

    Hi Chhavi, 

    Is this something that is new in 2.2? 

    Thanks,

    Phill.



    ------------------------------
    Phill Rowbottom
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: PowerVC 2.2.0 - Tape media allocation to LPARs/VMs

    Posted Wed February 07, 2024 10:08 AM

    Hello all,

    Thanks, some good information.

    Thanks, Chhavi 

    Here's what I did, and it works fine.

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Cisco MDS
    1.Create a new vsan on cisco mds's to Isolate tape and disk I/O
    2. Assign correct FC ports with/where tape media is connected.
    PowerVC:
    3.Add new fabric with tape media vsan xxx
    4. Register "powervc-tape-reg" with correct Target ports.

    5. Create an SCG with IPG and create 2 IPGS eg: IPG_tape: fcs0, fcs1 ports, IPG_data:fcs2, fc3

    6. Update the storage template to use the required IPG
    7. Create Data volume using the tape media template (This will be created by default which powervc-tape-reg is run)
    8. Attach the newly created tape volume to the VM/LPAR - (The new zones are created on cisco mds for tapes on attaching tape volumes)

    Check the zoning to make sure we are connecting to the correct FC ports.

    Note: If you detach/delete the tape volume, the zoning gets removed.

    Warm Regards,

    Sasi



    ------------------------------
    Sasi Chand
    Humble - Engineer
    Freelance
    Wellington
    New Zealand
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: PowerVC 2.2.0 - Tape media allocation to LPARs/VMs

    Posted Fri February 09, 2024 05:17 AM
    Edited by Sasi Chand Fri February 09, 2024 05:20 AM

    Hi Chhavi,

    I have followed the steps as you suggested with 2 IPGS one for data and one for tape.

    The problem I am facing is that the vFC adapters for tape are not created on VM deploy on the HMC (PowerVM), because the SCG_DATA is only containing IPG ports for disks "IPG_DISK"

    When I deploy the VM I specify the SCG* as SCG_DATA, this works fine the vFC adapters are created accordingly on the PowerMV side, the zoning is done as expected and the SAN hosts is created correctly with correct WWPNs.

    Once the VM is deployed than I created a new data volume using SCG_TAPE which contains IPG_TAPE, this works fine.

    When I attach the newly created volume to the VM it fails, hence the vFC for tape adapters are not there as these where not created on the VM deploy.

    Any help would be much appreciated.

    Messages

    Request to attach volume TAPE0 to virtual machine test was sent. It may take a few minutes.

    An error occurred while performing a storage operation for the volume TAPE0

    Volume a025ca0c-b848-4b17-b9fa-4725aa652367 could not be attached to virtual machine test. Error message: Initiator port group 'IPG_TAPE' defined storage template on does not exists on SCG.. Please select the applicable initiator port groups defined on the storage connectivity group.

    Could not attach volume a025ca0c-b848-4b17-b9fa-4725aa652367 to virtual server test-21fb43ad-0000002a. Check that host 910522A_78711E1 has connectivity to all storage providers. Check the host's log files for further details of this error.

    Regards,

    Sasi

    Now 



    ------------------------------
    Sasi Chand
    Humble - Engineer
    Freelance
    Wellington
    New Zealand
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: PowerVC 2.2.0 - Tape media allocation to LPARs/VMs

    Posted Fri February 09, 2024 07:30 AM

    Hi Sasi,

    The vFC should be created when you attach the volume, it's not created at VM deployment time.  But as we found during our implementation, what you're trying to do isn't supported by PowerVC. What happened to us is the vFCs will be mapped to any FC, not just the ones that it should be ie: the backup vsan.

    We tried to do exactly what you're doing and found when working with support that it is not supported and won't work correctly.  We ended up changing our design to what is supported and does work. Our implementation is V2.1.1 (updating to 2.2 or later will happen at some point).  I'm not aware of anything that has been changed in 2.2 to make what we originally attempted and what you're now attempting to do supported.  If I was you, I'd rase a case with support, send them the diagnostics and see what they come back with.

    Phill.



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    Phill Rowbottom
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: PowerVC 2.2.0 - Tape media allocation to LPARs/VMs

    Posted Thu May 30, 2024 04:31 PM

    Hello there,

    Update on this. It works a treat after Setting up the Storage connectivity groups with correct IPGS. The tape volumes can be attached on the fly where zoning and creating of new vFC adapters happens on the attach.

    Cheers

    sasi



    ------------------------------
    Sasi Chand
    Humble - Engineer
    Freelance
    Wellington
    New Zealand
    ------------------------------

    Original Message