Access Logix

LUN Masking in a CLARiiON Environment

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 1

LUN Masking is an essential feature of a shared array environment. The

administrator can have control over which logical devices (LUNs) are assigned to
which host.

1
 Topics

Access Logix Defined

Storage Group Implementation

Storage Group Troubleshooting

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 2

We will be defining Access Logix, examining the steps involved in implementing

Access Logix, and examining some key steps in troubleshooting.

2
 Shared Storage without Access Logix Enabled
0 1 2
3 4 5
6 7 8

HOST
A

0 1 2
0 1 2
3 4 5 Fabric LUNs
3 4 5
6 7 8

HOST 6 7 8
B

0 1 2
3 4 5
6 7 8

HOST
C

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 3

Without Access Logix installed on the array, or with in installed-but-not-enabled, All

hosts connected to an array will have access to all of the non-private LUNs on the
array.
In this example, there are 9 LUNs on the array (0-8). Each host on the right (A, B,
C) will see all 9 LUNs when the probe for devices.
While it is possible to work only with LUNs intended for a certain host, you run the
risk of accidentally deleting the data for another host every time you run the UNIX
format command, or the Windows Disk Administrator.

3
 Access Logix Enabled but no Storage Groups Configured

HOST
A

0 1 2

Fabric LUNs
3 4 5

HOST 6 7 8
B

HOST
C

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 4

With Access Logix enabled, but no Storage Groups configured, no hosts connected
to an array have access to the LUNs on the array.
In this example, there are 9 LUNs on the array (0-8). Each host on the right (A, B,
C) will see all 0 LUNs when the probe for devices.
We will need to create Storage Groups for these hosts in order for them to Access
the LUNs designated to them.

4
 Access Logix Storage Groups Configured
0 Storage Group
1 for HOSTA
2
0 1 2
HOST
A

0
Storage Group
1 Fabric for HOSTB
2
HOST 3 4 5
B

0
1 Storage Group
2 for HOSTC
HOST
C 6 7 8

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 5

With Access Logix installed on the array, and storage groups for all the LUNs and
hosts, LUNs will only be visible on their intended hosts, eliminating confusion and
the risk of data loss.
Here, we have created 3 Storage Groups on the array, and have assigned a set of
LUNs and a host to each one. At this point when each host reboots, they will only
see the LUNs from their Storage Group. The other LUNs are “masked” from them.
Another feature of Access Logix is LUN translation, where it will automatically
reassign a LUN number to host so that each host in the SAN will see LUN 0,
followed by LUN 1 etc. The LUN numbers on the CLARiiON will remain what they
were when bound. You can see the translated LUN numbers in the Host tab of
Navisphere Manager.

5
 Initiator Registration
Initiator
Database
AGENT
HOSTA
HOST 192.168.2.26
A Win 2000
HBA0-WWN
HBA1-WWN
etc

AGENT Fabric HOSTB

192.168.2.28
LINUX
HOST
HBA0-WWN
B
HBA1-WWN
etc

HOSTC
AGENT 192.168.2.30
SOLARIS 7
HBA0-WWN
HOST HBA1-WWN
C etc

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 6

In order to be able to assign a host to a Storage Group, the host must first perform
an Initiator Registration. It is a process performed during Agent startup, where the
Agent sends information about the host and HBA’s to each array through all paths.
Each registration includes:
•sending HBA UID
•receiving SP
•initiator type
•Hostname
•other information.
The array uses the information to create a list of hosts to be assigned to Storage
Groups.

6
 Access Logix Installation

Access Logix is array based software

BASE Code comes in two varieties, Without Access

Logix (default config), and With Access Logix

To install, replace existing Base code with Access Logix

Version

After installed, it’s not enabled by default

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 7

Access Logix is not installed by default. After it is installed, it is not

automatically enabled.

7
 Is it Installed & Enabled?

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 8

If you wish to find out if you currently have A/L installed, go to the Software Tab on the
Storage System Properties Box in Navisphere. Look at the version of active Base Code.
The number following the second decimal point is The Access Logix bit.
•0 = NO
•1 = YES

Also, Access Logix needs to be enabled before it takes effect. Check the Storage
Access Tab, and make sure there is a check next to “Access Control Enabled”.

8
Data Access Enabled

When Access Logix is first enabled, all host access to

LUNs is disabled
You re-enable host access by creating and configuring
Storage Groups.
Once Enabled, can be disabled by CLI command or in
Engineering Mode through Manager
–Disabling data access can cause data corruption and loss
–All data must be backed-up and or removed before disabling
this feature

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 9

9
 Storage Group Creation

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 10

To create a Storage Group, right click on the array and select “Create Storage
Group” from the menu. Give the Storage Group a name, preferable something
which relates it the host which will be attached to it. In order to configure the
members of the Storage Group, expand the Storage Groups tree for the newly
created Group. Right-click on that item and select Properties.

10
 Storage Group – Adding LUNs

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 11

Select the LUN tab to add the LUNs you wish to access from a particular host.
• Show LUNs Lets you select which LUNs will display in the Available LUNs
list. Choices are All or Not in other Storage Groups.
• Select LUNs Lets you select LUNs to include in your Storage Group.
• Available LUNs Lists all LUNs available to include in the Storage Group where
ID is the ID assigned to the LUN or snapshot when it is bound. Name is the Name
you assign to the LUN when it is bound. Capacity is the user capacity of the LUN.
Drive Type is Type of disks in the LUN - Fibre Channel or ATA.
• Moves LUNs from Available LUNs to Selected LUNs.
•  Moves LUNs from Selected LUNs to Available LUNs.

11
 Storage Groups – Adding Hosts

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 12

After selecting the LUNs (or before , it doesn’t matter), select the Host tab. This will
be the host you wish to associate with the selected LUNs. If it is a non-clustered
host, you should select a single host. If there is a cluster of hosts who are
accessing the LUNs, they should all be included under “hosts to be connected”.
A HOST CAN BE CONNECTED TO ONLY ONE STORAGE GROUP
•Show Hosts Not connected (default) means not in a Storage Group.
•Select Hosts Lists all hosts available to connect to the Storage Group
• Moves hosts from Available Hosts to Hosts to be connected.
• Moves hosts from Hosts to be connected to Available Hosts.
•Hosts to be connected Lists all hosts currently connected to this Storage Group.

12
 Storage Groups - Navisphere

Storage Group
Attached Host(s)
LUN(s)
Host Device Designation

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 13

When you expand the Storage Groups tree in Navisphere you can see all the
elements as shown. The Storage Group (HOSTC) is at the top level. Hosts
(HOSTC) is listed under hosts. LUNs (LUN 0, LUN 1) are listed under LUNs. Also,
in the description of the LUN, we can see the LUNs from the host perspective
(c4t1d1). In this example we can see that Flare LUN 0 is appearing on the host as
“d1” and Flare LUN 1 is appearing as “d0”. This is evidence of the LUN Aliasing
discussed earlier, where the LUN numbers often change from the host perspective.

13
 Troubleshooting Registration Issues

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 14

In this example, an admin found that he could not add a host called “sun111” to his
storage group, because it was not listed under “Available Hosts”. The first place to
check is the Connectivity Status Window, by right clicking on the array in question.
Notice that there is no entry for “sun111” here, rather multiple entries which seems
to show the HBA WWN’s from the sun111 host . Also notice that under the header
“Registered” there is a string of “No’s”. We will solve this issue by performing a
group edit.

14
 Group Edit

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 15

Click on the Group Edit Button from the Connectivity Status Window. Highlight all of
the Initiators (WWN-SP Port ID) and move them over to the Selected window by
clicking the .

15
 Group Edit - Filled

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 16

After all of the initiators have been moved over to the Selected side, make a couple
of other key edits.
•Under “New Initiator Information” select the appropriate setting for a particular
host/failover type. For basic PowerPath connections from Windows or Sun, you
would select CLARiiON Open, Array Commpath Enabled and Failover Mode 1 as
shown here. See help file or procedure generator for details on other hosts.
•Select “New Host,” type in the Hostname and IP precisely and click OK.

NOTE: If you accidentally add an initiator from a system that already is in a

Storage Group, you may cut off access from that host.

16
 Group Edit - Success

Re-add hosts to Storage Group. Restart Host.

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 17

Now we can see a proper registration for the “sun111” host. The server is displayed
for the four initiator connections, and it yes under “Fibre” and “Registered”. You will
need to add this new entry to the

17
 Remove an Extraneous Registration

TRAINING117
TRAINING117
TRAINING117
TRAINING117

M ode
ee ring
En gin

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 18

If you see a host listed in the Connectivity Status window, that is no longer attached
to the array and is not meant to be attached, you can remove the entry from the
initiator database by entering Engineering Mode in Navisphere.
Notice that the entries for that host appear as “NO” under the Fibre Column.
Highlight the offending records one at a time and click on the New “Deregister”
button to remove this record.

18
Summary

Access Logix allows for the creation of Storage Groups.

A Storage Group is a LUN-Host table which segments

the storage according to customer needs.

The Navisphere interface is used to install and

implement Storage Groups

Storage Group Troubleshooting

© 2003 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 19

19