Storage only available on one host in a cluster

[mdonovan]

I'm having an odd problem with storage not showing up on more than one host. Here's the details:

I recently upgraded vCenter Server to 5.5. Hosts are still running 5.0. I have a production datacenter that is working fine, and I have a hot site datacenter. The hot site datacenter is having this problem. I got an existing LUN copied to the hot site SAN and presented to all the hosts at the hot site. I rescan for new storage and all hosts see the new LUN and it all looks good there.

When I go to Add Storage, this is where I'm seeing this problem. I go to the first host, Add Storage, add the LUN, it sees it, reads the VMFS data correctly, and adds it and it shows up in the storage list. So far so good. It rescans for VMFS on the other hosts, but they don't show the new storage. I manually rescan and they still don't show the storage.

If I unmount the LUN from the first host, go to another host, add the LUN, it reads it fine, shows it in storage, and works OK, but then none of the other hosts see it, even the one that just had it on it and saw it OK.

The production datacenter and hosts are working fine, adding LUNs functions normally, it's just this hot site datacenter that I'm seeing this on.

Does anyone have any ideas what's going on?

Thanks for the advice

Matt

[crawfordm]

Can you please tell us more about your storage?  Is it FC, iSCSI, NetApp, EMC ..

[Ramesh Dhanaraj]

I hope yellow bricks page would help you to get right solution http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2008/12/11/enableresignature-andor-disallowsnapshotlun/

[mdonovan]

dhanarajramesh,

I read through the web page you suggested, and then when I imported the copied LUN I told VMware to re-signature the LUN rather than keep the existing signature, and then it was available to all hosts. I then added a vm to the inventory and powered it on and that seemed to work as well.

Thanks to everyone for helping me with this! Hopefully that's the end of this problem.

Matt

[Closedgate1213]

As crawfordm asked, do you have any more information on the storage adapter you are using or the storage vendor?

Have you got any limitations set on your Shared Storage to limit to only 1 host per LUN?  What happens if you have two LUNS - can you see 1 LUN on the first host and the other LUN on the second? 

[mdonovan]

I should have provided more information. It's an IBM XIV behind an SVC. The HBA card is a QLogic QLE2462, same as all the hosts here. The servers at the hot site as far as I know are not limited to one LUN. The hot site servers should be set up identically to the hosts used for production. Obviously something is missing. I used the same DVD to install to them all, so it should be the same. I'm having the SAN guy copy another LUN to try that and see how that one works.

One thing I did notice, when I add storage it does not trigger a VMFS scan on the other hosts. Rescanning manually still does not show the LUN on any other host except for the first one I add it to.

I'll take a look at the yellow bricks page and see if that helps.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Matt

[Closedgate1213]

It would be at the SAN level if it is limiting Host server connections. Depends if it is offered by the SAN though.

By Storage adapter I meant in vSphere Host > Configuration > Storage Adapters   -  Is this iSCSI, FC, or FCoE??

Thanks

[mdonovan]

It's FiberChannel, so it would be FC. I'll talk to the SAN guy about this some more, maybe he missed something.

Matt

[Closedgate1213]

Get him to check the zoning. This can hide the LUN from other hosts.

Thanks.