QLogic HBAs not seeing all paths

[kcarlile]

Hi, I recently got a QLogic QLE4050C and a QLE4060C to use in one of my HP DL380G6s to talk to an HP MSA2012i. They seem to be working, but each one sees different targets.

Here's the config:

The MSA2012i has one vDisk (array, in normal speak), with 3 LUNs, presented by the primary controller. In the 2012i, the secondary controller won't present LUNs from a vDisk it doesn't own (marvy...). Each controller has 2 iSCSI ports, A0, A1, B0, and B1.

I have all of my iSCSI devices on their own VLAN and subnet, so the 2012i, each of the QLogics (both are in a single server), a DL380G6 with software iSCSI, and another rinky dink single port iSCSI device that I use for testing stuff. The VCB server also has a port on this subnet.

I added all of the 2012i's iSCSI IPs to dynamic discovery under the properties of both QLogics HBAs, but in a slightly different order. On one, A0 is listed first, on the other, A1 is listed first, with B0 and B1 similarly flipped.

When I look under static discovery, I only see the first port listed for each of the QLogics. The 4050C has only A1, the 4060C has only A0. On the ESX host using SW iSCSI, all of the ports are listed under static discovery. On both the 4050C and the 4060C, only port B0 is listed.

I've rebooted, rescanned more times than I can count, removed and readded IPs to the dyanmic discovery; nothing changes.

I don't think this is a serious problem, but it is really odd.

Anyone have any ideas where I should look next?

[Andy_Banta]

I don't have a lot of experience with the MSA2012i, but I would imagine that when you enter any port's address for dynamic discovery, SendTargets will return all of the ports that are available.

You're probably seeing two things.

The first is that the Qlogic cards can only log into a given target iqn. name once, even if there are multiple IP addresses (meaning different ports).

The second is the way dynamic discovery works. When initiator does dynamic discovery, the target returns a list of ALL of the targets that are available.

In this case, adding the second discovery address isn't buying you anything because the QLogic card has already discovered all of the ports. In the first case, the storage probably returned the list A0, A1, B0, B1, could only log into A0 and B0 because A1 has the same iqn. as A0 and B1 has the same iqn. as B0. The second card probably was returned the list A1, A0, B0, B1 (because you asked port A1 first) and again can only log into one port on each controller.

If you want one card to connect to A0 and B0 and the other card to connect to A1 and B1, you should enter those as static discovery targets and disable dynamic discovery.

Enjoy,

Andy

[kcarlile]

OK, that makes more sense, esp. the bit about QLogic cards only logging into a given target iqn. name once. When I try to statically add the second port, it gives an error message.

Glad I got 2 single port cards; that'll let me do some vague sort of load balancing between them.

Thanks!

[Andy_Banta]

When I try to statically add the second port, it gives an error message.

This is the same problem as trying to dynamically discover the same iqn. twice. What you're really seeing is that it won't add the second entry.

If you remove both dynamic discovery entries and any static entries, you should be able to add a static entry for each particular port that you want.

Until you do that, the card will gripe that you're re-adding a target it already knows about.

Enjoy,

Andy