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Using the Storage Consolidation Administrator: Dell OpenManage� Storage Consolidation User's Guide

	Creating a Virtual Disk		Deleting a Server From the Control Space
	Configuring the Control Space for the First Time		Deleting a Virtual Disk From the Control Space
	Logging In		Exporting and Importing the client.config File
	Adding a Server to the Control Space		Moving Virtual Disks Between Servers
	Browsing the Control Space		Setting Interface Preferences
	Assigning Virtual Disks to Servers		Updating Server Information
	Unassigning Virtual Disks		Viewing a Server's Status
	Finding Version and Copyright Information

Creating a Virtual Disk

The following software products are used to create and manage virtual disks:

• Dell OpenManage Data Supervisor

Dell OpenManage Data Supervisor is the standard software application used to create and manage virtual disks on Dell� PowerVault� 650F enclosures. Refer to the Dell OpenManage Data Supervisor, Event Monitor, and Integrator Installation and Operation document for instructions on configuring virtual disks.

• Dell OpenManage Data Administrator

Dell OpenManage Data Administrator is an optional software application used to create and manage virtual disks on Dell PowerVault 650F enclosures. Refer to the Dell OpenManage Data Administrator Installation and Operation Guide for instructions on configuring virtual disks.

• Dell OpenManage Array Manager

Dell OpenManage Array Manager is the standard software application used to create and manage virtual disks on Dell PowerVault 660F enclosures. Refer to the Dell OpenManage Array Manager documentation for instructions on configuring virtual disks.

Configuring the Control Space for the First Time

When you start Storage Consolidation Administrator for the first time, the Storage Consolidation Administrator Server Management window opens. Use this window to add servers to the control space.

NOTE: Storage Consolidation Services must be installed on each server that you want to include in the control space.

When you are finished with the configuration, click OK to save the configuration to persistent storage. When you start Storage Consolidation Administrator from this workstation again, it will load the saved control space.

NOTE: Storage Consolidation Administrator stores the control space configuration information in the client.config file. This file is located in the \dellstoragec subdirectory of your installation directory.

Logging In

When you start Storage Consolidation Administrator with a saved control space, you are prompted with a login window. Storage Consolidation Administrator uses this login window to authenticate the session with all servers in the currently saved control space.

NOTE: Any servers that fail authentication will not be included in the session, and Storage Consolidation Administrator displays their status as unauthorized.

Adding a Server to the Control Space

1. If you have not already done so, set up the server.
    
2. In the Storage Consolidation Administrator window, click Server, and then click Manage.
    
3. In the Storage Consolidation Administrator Server Management window, type the host name of a server in the Host field, and click the Add button when finished. 
   
   
4. To add other servers, change the Host field and click the Add button again. 
   
   

NOTES: It is possible to enter the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the server rather than the host name. Storage Consolidation attempts to resolve the address to a name. However, when using Windows� 2000 Advanced Server and a server name that is longer than the NetBIOS name length (15 bytes), the following restrictions apply: The domain name server (DNS) name suffix (such as, mydomain.com) must be omitted. The shortened NetBIOS name cannot be used. The IP address cannot be used.



5. When you are finished adding server names to the control space, click the OK button to close the window.
   

This procedure synchronizes Storage Consolidation Administrator with the Storage Consolidation server agent on the new server.

Browsing the Control Space

After you log in, the Storage Consolidation Administrator window opens. The left pane contains the SAN tree, which is an expandable tree structure representing the logical hierarchy of your SAN components (groups, servers, and PowerVault systems). The SAN groups are displayed as folders, just as directories are displayed in Windows Explorer, and can be expanded by either double-clicking the folder or clicking the plus sign (+) to the left of the folder. The SAN, the storage groups, and the servers and PowerVault systems they contain are called the control space.

The SAN tree displays only servers and disk storage in the SAN. It does not display interconnecting hubs, tape drives, switches, or physical paths from servers to storage.

When you expand the SAN folder in the SAN tree, one or more storage groups under it are displayed. When you expand a group, it expands into a Server Group and PowerVault Group. If you expand the Server Group, you can see all servers in that storage group. Clicking a server displays a list of virtual disk(s) assigned to the server in the right pane of the Storage Consolidation Administrator window. If you expand the PowerVault Group, you can see all PowerVault systems in that storage group. Clicking a PowerVault system displays all virtual disk(s) that belong to that PowerVault system in the right pane of the Storage Consolidation Administrator window. As you click different SAN components on the left, a corresponding attribute table is displayed in the right pane.

The following table lists the attributes displayed in the right pane when you select a specific SAN component:

Table 1. SAN Component Attribute Descriptions

Assigning Virtual Disks to Servers

You must assign a virtual disk to a server before the server can access the virtual disk. You can assign virtual disks to a single server or to multiple servers.

To assign virtual disk(s) to a single server, perform the following steps:

1. If you have not already done so, create and initialize the virtual disk.
    
2. Expand the Storage Group and the Dell PowerVault System Group that contains the PowerVault system with the virtual disk you want to assign, and then click the PowerVault system name.
    
3. In the right pane of the Storage Consolidation Administrator window, click the virtual disk you want to assign.
    
4. Click Action and then click Assign, or right- click on the virtual disk and select Online from the drop- down menu.
    
5. In the Storage Consolidation Administrator Assign window, click the server to which you want to assign the virtual disk(s).   
    
6. Click Apply.

NOTES: This procedure fails when a virtual disk shows that it is unassigned (free) but is actually owned by a server that has crashed or is not responding to Storage Consolidation Administrator. In this situation, Storage Consolidation Administrator displays a message showing the server to which the disk is assigned and asks you if you want to force the new assignment. Perform a forced assignment only if you are certain that the server named in the message is not using the virtual disk. If a virtual disk is not signed, Storage Consolidation Administrator signs the disk for you during the assignment process. If a virtual disk is assigned to a server and has a partition that is a member of a Microsoft� Windows NT� fault-tolerant set, the virtual disk can neither be moved to another server nor unassigned (freed).

To assign a virtual disk to multiple servers, perform the following steps:

NOTICES: If the servers do not have any disk-sharing software, you can cause immediate and irreversible disk corruption.

To safely assign virtual disks to multiple servers, the disk(s) must satisfy the following requirements. If the disk does not satisfy all of the requirements, the multiple assignment may result in disk corruption.

• The disk must be accessed through the partitions created on the disk. Do not configure the disk to be accessed as a pure raw disk with no partitions.
   
• Software that allows safe access to the shared disk must be used on the servers accessing the disk.

1. If you have not already done so, create and initialize the virtual disk.
    
2. Expand the Storage Group and PowerVault Group that contains the PowerVault system with the virtual disk you want to assign, and then click the PowerVault system name.
    
3. In the right pane of the Storage Consolidation Administrator window, click one or more virtual disks.
    
4. Click Action and then click Online Server Group.
    
5. In the Storage Consolidation Administrator Server Group Assign window, click the servers to which you want to assign the virtual disk.
    
6. Click Apply.

Unassigning Virtual Disks

To unassign (or free) virtual disk(s) from a server, perform the following steps:

1. Select a virtual disk to unassign in one of the following ways:

• Expand the Storage Group and Server Group that contains the server to which the virtual disk is assigned. Click the server. Then, in the right pane of the Storage Consolidation Administrator window, click the virtual disk that you want to unassign.

• Expand the Storage Group and PowerVault Group that contains the PowerVault system name with the virtual disk you want to unassign and click the PowerVault system name. Then, in the right pane of the Storage Consolidation Administrator window, click the virtual disk that you want to unassign.

2. In the Storage Consolidation Administrator window, click Action, and then click Assign.
    
3. In the Storage Consolidation Administrator Assign window, click <Free List>.
    
4. Click Apply and then click Exit.

Deleting a Server From the Control Space

1. Unassign the virtual disks assigned to the server.

2. In the Storage Consolidation Administrator window, click Server, and then click Manage.

3. In the Storage Consolidation Administrator Server Management window, click the server.

4. Click Delete and then click OK.

NOTE: The Storage Consolidation software saves the changes you make in this procedure to persistent storage and then refreshes the display in Storage Consolidation Administrator.

Deleting a Virtual Disk From the Control Space

1. Determine which server (if any) the virtual disk is assigned to by expanding the Storage Group and PowerVault Group that contains the virtual disk and then clicking the proper PowerVault system name.

The right pane of the Storage Consolidation Administrator window shows any disk assignments in the Host Name column.  

NOTE: You can also determine the server that a virtual disk is assigned to by running the storagec status command on each server to see if the virtual disk's PowerVault system name and logical unit number (LUN) appear in the command output.

2. If the virtual disk is assigned to a server, unassign the disk.

If the Storage Consolidation software reports that the disk is in use, then either determine which application is using the disk and shut down the application program or unassign the disk from the server running that application program.

3. Use the Dell OpenManage Data Supervisor (or the Dell OpenManage Data Administrator program) to delete the virtual disk.
    

NOTES: This procedure deletes the virtual disk from all servers in the control space. If the disk is not assigned the last Windows disk number, the operating system on the server renumbers the disks that follow it the next time the server is rebooted. For example, if a server has disks 1 through 5 and disk 3 is removed, then Windows renumbers disks 4 and 5 to disks 3 and 4 when you reboot the server. This can occur on one or more servers in the control space. If any software depends on the number that Windows assigns to a disk (which is not common), you may need to reconfigure the software to use the correct disk. You must reboot all servers in the Storage Consolidation control space to erase all record of the deleted virtual disk. If you do not, the deleted virtual disk will continue to be displayed in Storage Consolidation Administrator, but you will not be able to perform any actions on it.

Exporting and Importing the client.config File

Storage Consolidation Administrator saves the control space configuration information, such as the host names of servers and their attributes, in the client.config file. This file is in the \dellstoragec subdirectory of your installation directory. For example, if you install the Storage Consolidation software in c:\program files\dell\openmanage\storage consolidation, the install program creates the \dellstoragec subdirectory in that path.

When you start Storage Consolidation Administrator, the program tries to locate the client.config file in the \dellstoragec subdirectory. If it does not find the file, Storage Consolidation Administrator creates one and prompts you to enter the host names of the servers you want to manage.

If you do not want to configure the control space by creating a new client.config file, you can force the Storage Consolidation Administrator to use an existing client.config file by creating the \dellstoragec subdirectory yourself and copying the existing client.config file into it before starting Storage Consolidation Administrator. You can also export and import configuration files using Storage Consolidation Administrator.

To export the client.config file, perform the following steps:

1. In the Storage Consolidation Administrator window, click File, and then click Export.
   
   
2. In the Storage Consolidation Export dialog box, create or specify the folder where you want to save the current client.config file, and then click Export. 

You can install this client.config file on another system by importing it with Storage Consolidation Administrator and manage the same control space.

To import the client.config file, perform the following steps:

1. In the Storage Consolidation Administrator window, click File, and then click Import.
    
2. In the Storage Consolidation Import dialog box, specify the folder that contains client.config file, and then click Import.

This procedure copies the client.config file into the \dellstoragec subdirectory of your installation directory. You can use the current system to manage the previously configured control space.

Finding Version and Copyright Information

To get the version number and copyright information for your Dell OpenManage Storage Consolidation software, click File, and then click About in the Storage Consolidation Administrator window.

Moving Virtual Disks Between Servers

1. Select a virtual disk to move in one of the following ways:

• Expand the Storage Group and Server Group that contains the server to which the virtual disk is assigned. Click the server name. Then, in the right pane of the Storage Consolidation Administrator window, click the virtual disk that you want to move.

• Expand the Storage Group and PowerVault Group that contains the PowerVault system name with the virtual disk and click the PowerVault system name. Then, in the right pane of the Storage Consolidation Administrator window, click the virtual disk that you want to move.

2. In the Storage Consolidation Administrator window, click Action, and then click Assign.
    
3. In the Storage Consolidation Administrator Assign window, click the server to which you want to assign the virtual disk(s), and click Apply.

Setting Interface Preferences

You can choose from three interface settings for the Storage Consolidation Administrator windows: the Microsoft Windows standard, the Motif standard, and Metal, which has a look and feel similar to Java.

To set the interface preferences, perform the following step:

• In the Storage Consolidation Administrator window, click Option, and then click Windows, Motif, or Metal.

Updating Server Information

The information displayed in the Storage Consolidation Administrator window can become obsolete. Servers going offline or control space configuration changes are examples of actions that can desynchronize the Storage Consolidation Administrator window display. You can resynchronize the Storage Consolidation Administrator window display with the current configuration of the control space by using the regenerate command. The regenerate command rebuilds the cached LUN information to get the most current information.

The refresh command scans the remote SAN servers and obtains the cached LUN information, which may not be up to date. This information may be subject to inaccuracies because the individual servers may not have updated their cached information recently. If a particular server is down during the refresh scan, the Storage Consolidation Administrator marks it as offline. Conversely, if the refresh scan finds an online server that was off-line during a previous scan, the Storage Consolidation Administrator marks it as online. When you add a new server to the control space, the next refresh scan will find it and the Storage Consolidation Administrator updates the Storage Consolidation Administrator window display to include the new server.  

NOTE: When you start Storage Consolidation Administrator, add or delete a server, or change a server attribute, Storage Consolidation Administrator performs a refresh command. The regenerate command should be performed immediately after startup.

To refresh the Storage Consolidation Administrator window, click Server, and then click Refresh. The Storage Consolidation Administrator window displays a collapsed SAN tree. Expand the tree to view the refreshed information.

To regenerate the Storage Consolidation Administrator window, click Server, and then click Regenerate. The Storage Consolidation Administrator window displays a collapsed SAN tree. Expand the tree to view the regenerated information.

Viewing a Server's Status

To view the status of a server in the currently configured control space, click Server, and then click Manage. The Server Configuration window opens and displays the status (Name, Port, Attribute, Status [online, off-line, unauthorized, or versionmismatch], and Platform) of each server in the control space.

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