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Using the Storage Consolidation StorageC Utility:
Dell OpenManage� Storage Consolidation User's Guide
Overview
You can manage and view the virtual disk configuration of servers running Microsoft� Windows� operating systems by using the StorageC command line utility.
This utility is installed by choosing either Default or Server
during the Storage Consolidation installation. You can manage the virtual disk configuration
for the server on which the StorageC utility is installed; you cannot manage remote
servers using the StorageC utility.
You can view the list of command line parameters by changing to your
Storage Consolidation installation directory and typing the following line at the command
prompt:
storagec help
Any changes of state (assigned [online] or unassigned [off-line])
of any virtual disk persists in subsequent reboots of the server. The local server
(the server on which StorageC is running) can use any virtual disks assigned to
it. Other disks are inaccessible to the server (they may be shown in Windows Disk Administrator
as an off-line disk). You can safely assign these disks to other servers in the storage
area network (SAN).
Commands to Manage a Server's Virtual Disk
Configuration
You can use StorageC command line utility on any of the servers sharing the
SAN to assign, unassign, or initialize virtual disks for the server on which
StorageC is running. The StorageC utility supports the parameters described in this
section for virtual disk management. The parameters are not case sensitive.
When you create a virtual disk, it is identified by its logical unit number (LUN). To find the corresponding disk number of an LUN, type the
following line at the command prompt:
storagec status
Note that the disk number is not assigned by Windows until a disk
has been brought online to the server during the boot session. More information about
showing the server’s virtual disk status is available in Commands
to View a Server's Virtual Disk Configuration.
 |
NOTE: In
the following commands, the enclosure_name:LUN variable
refers to the symbolic disk enclosure name and individual disk LUN, separated by a colon.
The disk enclosure name is also shown with the storagec status command. Multiple
pairs of enclosure name and LUN may be specified. The enclosure_name:LUN is case-sensitive. All other parameters are not case-sensitive. |
online enclosure_name:LUN
Assigns the list of virtual disks specified by enclosure_name:LUN to the
server. This command checks each disk to see if it can be assigned to another
server. If it is suspected that it is being used by another server,
the disk is not assigned.
onlineforce enclosure_name:LUN
Attempts to
assign the list of virtual disks specified by enclosure_name:LUN to the
server even if it is suspected that they are being used by another server.
The onlineforce command is helpful in cases when a server
crashes while owning a disk and you need to assign the disk to another server. In some
cases, when a server crashes, the disk may appear to still be assigned to the server.
offline enclosure_name:LUN
Unassigns the list of virtual disks specified by
enclosure_name:LUN from the server. This
command also frees any drive letters associated with the disk(s). This command does not
unassign a virtual disk that has at least one partition that is a member of a Windows NT�
fault-tolerant volume (volume set, stripe set, or mirror set).
offlineforce enclosure_name:LUN
Unassigns the list of virtual disks specified by
enclosure_name:LUN from the
server, even if the disk is in use by an application. This command also frees any drive letters associated with the disk(s).
offlinekeepdl enclosure_name:LUN
Unassigns the list of virtual disks specified by
enclosure_name:LUN from the
server but reserves the drive letters assigned to the disks so that they cannot be
reassigned to other disks. If one of the disks is brought back online, its former drive
letter is reassigned to it. This command does not unassign a virtual disk that has at
least one partition that is a member of a Windows NT fault-tolerant volume (volume set,
stripe set, or mirror set).
offlineforcekeepdl enclosure_name:LUN
Unassigns the list of virtual disks specified by enclosure_name:LUN from the
server, even if the disk is in use by an application. This command also reserves the drive letters assigned to the disks so they cannot be reassigned to other disks. If one of the disks is brought back online, its former drive letter is reassigned to it.
onlineall
Assigns all virtual disks to the server running Windows. This
command does not assign a virtual disk that is being used by another server.
releasedl drive_letter_list
Releases the list of drive letters specified by
drive_letter_list from the
server. The variable drive_letter_list refers to the drive letters that are listed with the parameters for the
server on which StorageC is running. These are entered as a space delimited list
of drive letters.
showdl
Displays all drive letters that are reserved on the server.
Commands to View a Server's Virtual Disk
Configuration
The StorageC utility also includes parameters to view a server’s
configuration of the virtual disks. You can view two levels of status information.
The two levels of status include the mapping of the Dell™
PowerVault™ system's virtual disk to the disk number. This is valuable information because
a virtual disk on the SAN may not have the same Windows disk number on all servers. It
is beneficial to verify the disk number of a virtual disk before changing the
server’s configuration.
A virtual disk can have one of two states: assigned
(online) or unassigned (off-line). To access and store data on
the virtual disk, it must be in the assigned (online) state. Changing a
disk to the online state also initializes it, unless the disk has been newly bound. In this
case, the server must be rebooted before Windows recognizes the disk.
The parameters used by the StorageC utility to view virtual disk configuration
are described below. The parameters are not
case-sensitive.
|
NOTE: In
the following descriptions, a vertical bar ( | ) indicates that you can use one or the other
of two parameters, but not both. |
fullstat
Displays the accessibility status of each virtual disk. For each
virtual disk, this command reports the PowerVault system, small computer systems interface
(SCSI) address at bootup, Windows disk number, disk vendor ID, disk product ID, and
disk size.
status
| stat
Displays the accessibility status of each Storage Consolidation
eligible virtual disk. For each virtual disk, this command reports the PowerVault system LUN,
Windows disk number, disk vendor ID, disk product ID, disk size, and assigned drive letters.
quickstat
Displays a quick summary of the disks controlled by Storage
Consolidation. This command runs slightly faster than the status command, but
reports less information. For each virtual disk, this command reports the PowerVault
system LUN, and Windows disk number.
Assigning Virtual Disks to Servers
- If you have not already done so, initialize the virtual disks
that you
want to assign.
- Use the storagec online command on the servers that will use the new virtual disks to assign the virtual disks to each server.
- Use the Windows disk utility on each server using the new storage
to verify that the virtual disks that are marked online (assigned) are accessible. Create any
required file systems on the new virtual disks.
Unassigning Virtual Disks
To unassign a virtual disk from a server, use the storagec offline
command.
Deleting a Virtual Disk From the
Control Space
- Determine the server to which the virtual disk is assigned by running
the storagec status command on each server to see if the virtual disk's PowerVault
system name and LUN appear in the Online Disks section of the command output.
- Unassign (off-line) the disk using the storagec offline command
on the server.
- Use the appropriate Dell OpenManage software product to remove the virtual disk.
|
NOTE: This
procedure deletes the virtual disk from all servers in the control space. If the disk is
not the last disk assigned to a server, 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. |
Deleting a Server From the Control
Space
- Run the storagec status
command on the server. Make a list of the
PowerVault system names and numbers of the virtual disks that are assigned to it.
- Unassign (off-line) all the assigned (online) disks on the server.
- Shut down the server and disconnect it from the PowerVault 5xF
Fibre Channel switch.
- Uninstall the Storage
Consolidation software.
If you want to reassign the disks used by the server to any other servers, perform the
following steps:
- Run the storagec status
command on the server that you want to use
for the
newly unassigned disks and determine which Windows disk number corresponds to the
PowerVault system name and LUN number of the disk used by the removed server.
- Run the storagec online
command on the server to assign the disks.
Example Configuration
This example describes the steps required to set up a two-server configuration.
Figure 1 shows server A and server B using the Dell PowerVault 5xF Fibre Channel
switch to share an external PowerVault storage system.
Figure 1: Example Configuration
 |
| 1 |
Dell PowerEdge server |
| 2 |
Fibre Channel switch |
| 3 |
Dell PowerVault storage system |
|
In this example, five virtual disks are configured on the external
PowerVault storage system and then shared between the two servers.
- Before you connect the servers to the Dell PowerVault 5xF
Fibre Channel switch, install the Dell OpenManage Storage Consolidation software on both
servers and then reboot them to activate the software. After you
verify that the Storage Consolidation software is working correctly, connect
the servers to the
Fibre Channel switch. The servers are then rebooted again so that they can detect the
PowerVault systems in the SAN.
- If you want to administer the servers remotely, install the Storage
Consolidation Administrator on a remote server. Start Storage Consolidation
Administrator; the Storage Consolidation Administrator Server Management window
appears. Add server A and server B. The
two-pane Storage Consolidation Administrator window appears.
-
Create the virtual disks using Dell OpenManage Data
Supervisor or Data Administrator. Reboot the servers again
to detect the new virtual disks. You can then view the disks using Storage
Consolidation Administrator. (If Storage Consolidation Administrator is running on a
remote server, you can perform a refresh to update the display and show the new
LUNs.)
The first column of the StorageC command output
shows the PowerVault system name with the virtual disk's LUN. Dell assigns
each PowerVault system a unique name. This name indicates which PowerVault system
is associated with a particular virtual disk. This name can be especially
helpful when there are multiple PowerVault systems on the SAN, and multiple
virtual disks from the multiple PowerVault systems sharing the same LUN. The
StorageC command output is based on enclosure type, as shown in the next step.
- If you need the small computer system interface (SCSI) addresses of
the virtual disks, view them by using the storagec fullstat command as shown in the
following example:
C:\>storagec
fullstat
Online
650f disks:
test4
:02:00:01:03 - Disk
14 - DGC
DISK
Offline
650f disks:
test4
:02:00:01:00 - Disk
- DGC DISK
test4
:03:00:01:01 - Disk
- DGC DISK
test4
:02:00:01:02 - Disk
- DGC DISK
Online
660f disks:
660F.england
:5 - Disk
- DELL
servername
660F.england
:1 - Disk
5 - DELL
servername
Offline
660f disks:
660F.england
:4 - Disk
- DELL
660F.england
:3 - Disk
- DELL
660F.england
:2 - Disk
- DELL
660F.england
:0 - Disk
- DELL
The
command completed successfully.
After the PowerVault system name, the output lists the SCSI address
detected during bootup. This SCSI address is in the form P:B:T:L, where:
- P = SCSI port number (storage host bus adapter [HBA] number)
to which the virtual disk is connected
- B = SCSI bus number on the HBA to which the virtual disk is
connected
- T = Target ID or physical unit number (PUN) to which the
virtual disk is connected
- L = LUN to which the virtual disk is
connected
|
NOTES: The
disk number or port number for a particular LUN can have different values on each server
on the SAN. The disk number for a server could be different from other servers depending
on how many other disks are assigned to the server. The port number depends on how many
adapters the server has and which adapter is used to access the virtual disk. Because of
these differences, use only the LUN value and PowerVault system name in the
StorageC
command output to correlate LUNs between servers on the SAN.
There are two unique virtual disk identifiers—the PowerVault
system name with the LUN and the Windows disk number. The PowerVault
system name with the LUN is a unique identifier for
each virtual disk on the SAN. The Windows disk number is a Windows identifier and
is unique only for the particular server. You can view the correlation between the two
identifiers for a particular server by running the storagec stat command.
|
- Use StorageC to assign or unassign the appropriate virtual
disks on each server. Suppose that server A needed to use Windows disks 2, 4,
and 6 (LUNs 0, 2, and 4 on the disk array), and server B needed to use Windows
disks 3 and 5 (LUNs 1 and 3 on the disk array). You would need to mark Windows
disks 2, 4, and 6 online on server A using the following StorageC command:
C:\>storagec
online test4:0 test4:2 test4:4
The
command completed successfully.
-
Use the storagec stat command and view
the results.
C:\>storagec
stat
Online
650f disks:
test4
:00 - Disk - DISK
- 31
MB
test4
:02 - Disk - DISK
- 31
MB
test4
:04 - Disk - DISK
- 31 MB
Offline
650f disks:
test4
:01 - Disk - DISK
- 31
MB
test4
:03 - Disk - DISK
- 31
MB
Online 660f disks:
Offline 660f disks:
C:\>
Multiple servers cannot share virtual disks without software
designed for disk sharing. In this example, no such software is used, so you must assume
that you need to keep track of which virtual disks are assigned to each server. Any virtual
disks not assigned to server A can be assigned to server B.
Once the disks are marked as online on (assigned to) a server, they
remain accessible to that server, even after you shut down the server and reboot it. When
virtual disks are off-line (unassigned), Windows Disk Administrator reports that the disks
exist, but it will not be able to manage them. Windows Disk Administrator reports them
as off-line disks.
-
Use a similar
StorageC
command on server B to mark Windows disks 3 and 5 online:
C:\>storagec
online test4:1 test4:3
The
command completed successfully.
-
Use the storagec stat command and view
the results.
C:\>storagec
stat
Online
650f disks:
test4
:01 - Disk - DISK
- 31
MB
test4
:03 - Disk - DISK
- 31
MB
Offline 650f disks:
test4
:00 - Disk - DISK
- 31
MB
test4
:02 - Disk - DISK
- 31
MB
test4
:04 - Disk - DISK
- 31
MB
Online 660f disks:
Offline 660f disks:
C:\>
As before, disks 2, 4, and 6 will show up as
off-line in Windows Disk Administrator for server B.
- You have now configured both
server A and server B to correctly use the SAN storage. You can reboot the servers at any
time and the disks that are marked off-line persistently stay off-line. You can now create
partitions or file systems on the assigned virtual disks.
Moving Virtual Disks Between Servers
The StorageC utility can also be used to change the ownership
of virtual disks by using a series of online and off-line commands.
To move virtual disks between servers, perform the following steps:
- Unassign the virtual disks from
their current server.
- Assign the virtual disks to another
server.
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