Anyone have any experience with DSM Adaptive Load Balancing and HP EVA?

n30_mkii · 27 Aug 2012 at 13:18

As per the title, I'm just wondering if anyone is working with a HP EVA?

I have just been through the process of changing all the paths in VMWare to be round robin ALUA aware so they use optimal paths. That worked fine and is following the owning controller correctly. However when I started making the changes to windows hosts using HP DSM i can't say the same. Basically changed them to round robin with ALB enabled however they don't seem to be using only optimised paths and are generating mirror port activity. I have used fixed paths for time being, just wondering if anyone else is using this?

This is all via HBA's just to clarify its an 8400 eva

Gerbil · 29 Aug 2012 at 13:13

Only ever used EVAs with ESX/ESXi hosts so I don't have much to suggest other than the obvious question. Have the Windows hosts been tagged as Windows when you created them in Command View EVA? I'm guessing the OS you choose there has some bearing on how the LUNs are then presented to the host and an incorrect choice might confuse DSM.

mole90 · 1 Sep 2012 at 21:30

If you set the Windows hosts to Shortest Queue Service Time and ensure that ALB is enabled, do you still see mirror port traffic?

We've got our VMware hosts configured using Round Robin but all the Windows servers are set to SQST with vDisk ownership balanced across the controllers.

morfmedia · 2 Sep 2012 at 14:35

Not used HP kit much myself, I'd get it raised with HP directly.

n30_mkii · 3 Sep 2012 at 11:57

mole90 said:
If you set the Windows hosts to Shortest Queue Service Time and ensure that ALB is enabled, do you still see mirror port traffic?

We've got our VMware hosts configured using Round Robin but all the Windows servers are set to SQST with vDisk ownership balanced across the controllers.

SQST with ALB and yes we still see mirror port traffic on the non owning controller. I think we will have to get some assistance from HP as I really want to get rid of our static paths as they cause us massive headaches if ownership changes on the eva for a given reason. It also means we will be able to balance a lot more effectively if the hosts will automatically follow

Thanks for the help.