EMC Storage Product Knowledge Sharing

VMware hosts require few mandatory FA bits setting before SAN storage to be provision. Apart from FA bits a series of procedure require from installing HBAs, HBA Firmware and drivers, zoning, mapping, masking devices, to configure kernel files and devices. Let’s assume we have already identified Symmetrix FA port for VMware host and completed zoning on switch. It is better to have separate FA pair for VMware host. (You can connect VMware host to 2 pair FA if you have enough FA resources available and going to deploy critical...

Think when you are creating a point-in-time image for multiple devices. It is easy to create a point-in-time image of entire set of logical device at same time. In order achieve this you need to shut down an application so that no IO will occurs while you creating a point-in-time image. This is big problem in today’s environment where every company looking solution for zero down time.The EMC provided solution to this problem is called “Enginuity Consistency Assist”. When you create a set of sessions and invoke Enginuity Consistency...

SRDF/S and SRDF/A configuration involves tasks such as suspending and resuming the replication, failover from R1 side to R2, restoring R1 or R2 volumes from their BCV, and more. You perform these and other SRDF/S or SRDF/A operations using both symrdf and TimeFinder command symmir. The below details are for SRDF Pair states during SRDF procedure.SyncInProg :- A synchronization is currently in progress between the R1 and the R2. There are existing invalid tracks between the two pairs and the logical link between both sides of...

Symmetrix Optimizer improves array performance by continuously monitoring access patterns and migrating devices to achieve balance across the disks in the array. This is process is carried out automatically based on user-defined parameters and is completely transparent to end users, hosts and applications in the environment. Migration is performed with constant data availability and consistent protection.Optimizer performs self-tuning of Symmetrix data configurations from the Symmetrix service processor by:· Analyzing...

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In order to use the control functions of Solutions Enabler, you must create device groups and add/associate Symmetrix devices with the group. The following example shows how to create a device group, add a standard device to it and associate two BCV devices to the group.The following commands will create a device group using the default type (regular). Next we will add a device to the device group and assign it a logical name. Then we associate two BCV devices with the device group so we can switch back and forth with the BCV...

Lets talk about SRDF feature in DMX for disaster recovery/remote replication/data migration. In today’s business environment it is imperative to have the necessary equipment and processes in place to meet stringent service-level requirements. Downtime is no longer an option. This means you may need to remotely replicate your business data to ensure availability. Remote data replication is the most challenging of all disaster recovery activities. Without the right solution it can be complex, error prone, labor intensive, and...

We have discussed regarding Symmetric DMX-3. Lets talk about Symmetrix Device. DMX-3 system applies a high degree of virtualization between what host sees and the actual disk drives. This device has logical volume address that the host can address. Let me clear that “A symmetrix Device is not a physical disk.” Before actually hosts see the symmetrix device, you need to define path means mapping the devices to Front-end director and then you need to set FA-PORT attribute for specific Host. Let not discuss configuration details...

I have been posting article related to CLARiiON recently. Lets talk about DMX Series. It is the most popular storage array from EMC. To manage DMX we have tool called ECC ( EMC Control Center, SMC and SYMCLI). Let me first explain what is gatekeeper and what is use?To perform software operations on the Symmetrix, we use the low level SCSI command. To send SCSI commands to the Symmetrix, we need to open a device. We refer to the device we open as a gatekeeper. Symmetrix gatekeepers provide communication paths into the Symmetrix...

Most of time you end up thinking that we had 500 GB disk but it finish without utlizing full capacity. Answer for this that whatever size you buy you do not get full amount of size becuase DMX size calculation on cylinder basis. Lets understand how DMX calculation size of disk:1) How DMX 2 and Symmetrix Covert cylinder to GB?GB = Cylinders * 15 * 64 * 512 divided by 1024 * 1024 * 1024for example 18570 cylinders is 8.5 GB2) How DMX 2 and Symmetrix Covert GB to cylinder?Cylinders = GB / 15 / 64 / 512 then multiply result by 1024*1024*10243)...