AIX

Hi guys,

I've been trying to tackle this issue for days and I'm stumped. Hopefully someone can give more light on what else I can do.

I have a p7 series box, with dual VIOS and 10 lpars and everything was working fine until I had to move the box to another location in the data centre. Ensured I labelled where each cable went etc.

Upon powering on the p7 server, it came up fine into standby mode. Then powered on the system. After that, I then powered on the VIOS (Primary) server and that came up fine and booted into the OS. (Each VIOS server has 2 x dual ports dedicated fibre adapters) I then proceeded to boot each lpar successfully. Now, when I ran lspath on VIOS (Primary) it showed that the second adapter has failed path. I tried to re-enable it to no success. I thought I'd continue with VIOS (Secondary) and continue along, to my suprise, no luns were accessible to the server. I even tried to go to SMS Menu to use the SAN Zone support, and Open firmware prompt for ioinfo and no luns were displaying. (I am using SCSI adapters for the luns)

The list below is what I have tried and unsuccessful.
1 - have changed over the fibre cables to the adapter and no success
2 - have bypassed the fibre patch panel and directly to the fibre switch and no success
3 - confirmed we can see light coming through the fibre cables
4 - Changed switched ports on the fibre adapters
5 - wrap plug test and no success
6 - Used the fibre cable that is plugged into the working fibre adapter and used in the fibre adapter that has issues and still no success.
7 - I have confirmed that I can see the fibre adapters as available on the VIOS server
8 - I have removed the fibre adapters from the system and re configured them
9 - I have shutdown the system completely, removed power and reattached power and started up the system and no success
10 - I have physically removed the fibre adapters and reseated them
11 - I have provided IBM with a 'snap' which is the system configuration of the VIOS server - so far hardware support can't find any fault.
12 - I have screenshot my VIOS configuration profile to IBM - no issues here
13 - I have ran an exe program from IBM to determine transmit and receive and noise on the port and the ones not working don't output any information.
14 - I have moved the fibre adapters from the VIOS server to another LPAR and still have the same issues.
15 - On the back on the server, I can see there is power to the adapters with green flash lights, but no link activity.
16 - I have checked with IBM documentation that Green LED slow flash and no Yellow LED indicates - Normal, link inactive or not started.

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi,

here some hints:

- Did you used the same switch ports in the data center?
- (if not) Did you checked the speed, fillword, NPIV settings for the used switch ports?
- See your storage admin your wwns as 'logged in'?
- Maybe you musst reenable a logged out server adapter on storage level (i don't know which Storage you use)


PS
Can you please post the output from following commands:

Code:

lspath
fcstat <fcsX>        # for both adapters
lscfg -vl <hdiskX>   # for one of the disk with a failed path

Regards

-I don't believe we used the same switch ports
-We are using brocade silkworm...forgot model
-the SAN team advised their settings are the same as the adapter that is currently working
-they have added the wwns but they don't come up online
-what does the logout server adapter do? Beside the obvious because it's like I've shut the system down and turned it back on. Should be normal?
-I'm not at my computer at the moment, but
lspath displays just only enabled paths for the working adapter. The failed one disappeared when rmdev the devices.
- fcstat only shows info about the working adapter and hangs on the other adapter with error which basically means, the device is not there or open or no activity.
--lsdev I will show u the information later as I'm not at my computer and will edit the post with the relevant information you have requested.

Thanks

I wanted to know if your Storage-Admin can see your WWNs as logged in (online) but this answer depends on your used storage (EMC, NetApp,..?). In our old environment with Datacore Storage Virtualisation, we sometime need to (re-)enable on a logged out server adapter at storage Site.

Okay, i know that cfgmgr hangs on a adapter while searching for child devices and throw some errors if no devices available but fcstat should come back immediately. Maybe i am wrong.


Regards

Our storage admin can definitely not see the wwns online or logged in.
We are using 3PAR SAN

Fcstat definitely immediately outputs information on a working adapter.
But would it not show if there is no activity? I can't remember, or maybe it hangs.

Maybe I'll have to ask about the server adapter log out. Do you know anything about if 3PAR requires this?

As already hinted to by Xray, i suppose this is a zoning problem. Picture a "zone" in a SAN to be like a VLAN: some switch ports, adapters and LUN initiators (all identified via "WWN", which serves the same purpose as a MAC address does in a net) are allowed to communicate. As you moved your box it might well be that you use now different FC-switch ports and/or other parts of the fabric and depending on your setup the SAN admins may or may not have to change the zoning accordingly.

Your SAN admin should know this off the top of his head. Generally this is a problem you can only solve working hand in hand with your SAN admins. Except some general hints like the ones we already gave you there is pretty little we can do for you. Even if we would have the necessary knowledge too much depends on your setup, which we do not know in the necessary depth.

I hope this helps.

bakunin

Bakunin, the SAN team advised me they don't do port mapping. They do WWN mapping. So, whatever port they plug into shouldn't matter. (I'm not 100% sure of this). Think of it like this. Fabric switch A - has WWN mapping enabled. SAN adds my MAC address to Fabric switch A. Fibre cable from my FC adapter to Fabric switch A and WWN doesn't come online.
Does Xray advise still apply?

I am looking for more information in regards to 3PAR and 'server logged out adapter' as Xray mentioned.