Partitioning Multipath Devices; Supported Architectures For Multipath I/O; Supported Storage Arrays For Multipathing - Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 11 - STORAGE ADMINISTRATION GUIDE 2-23-2010 Administration Manual

7.2.6 Partitioning Multipath Devices

Behavior changes for how multipathed devices are handled might affect your configuration if you
are upgrading.
"SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11" on page 47
"SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10" on page 47
"SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9" on page 47
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
In SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, the default multipath setup relies on
existing symbolic links in the
start multipathing, the link points to the SCSI device with its
running, the symbolic link points to the device using its
symbolic links in the
/dev/disk/by-id
whether multipath is started or not. The configuration files (such as
need to be modified because they automatically point to the correct device.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
In SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, the
to add symlinks to the
boot.multipath
for any newly created partitions without requiring a reboot. This triggers
symlinks. The main benefit is that you can call
disk/by-*
rebooting the server.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
In SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9, it is not possible to partition multipath I/O devices themselves.
If the underlying physical device is already partitioned, the multipath I/O device reflects those
partitions and the layer provides
the partitions through the multipath I/O layer. As a consequence, the devices need to be partitioned
prior to enabling multipath I/O. If you change the partitioning in the running system, DM-MP does
not automatically detect and reflect these changes. The device must be reinitialized, which usually
requires a reboot.

7.2.7 Supported Architectures for Multipath I/O

The multipathing drivers and tools support all seven of the supported processor architectures: IA32,
AMD64/EM64T, IPF/IA64, p-Series (32-bit/64-bit), z-Series (31-bit and 64-bit).

7.2.8 Supported Storage Arrays for Multipathing

The multipathing drivers and tools support most storage arrays. The storage array that houses the
multipathed device must support multipathing in order to use the multipathing drivers and tools.
Some storage array vendors provide their own multipathing management tools. Consult the vendor's
hardware documentation to determine what settings are required.
"Storage Arrays That Are Automatically Detected for Multipathing" on page 48
directory when multipathing is started. Before you
/dev/disk/by-id
path persistently point to the same device regardless
software is used in the
kpartx
line in the
/dev/dm-*
/dev/disk/by-id/<name>p1 ... pN
to overwrite the
udev
name. When multipathing is
scsi-xxx
name. This ensures that the
dm-uuid-xxx
and
lvm.conf
/etc/init.d/
multipath.conf
to fill in the
udevd
with the new parameters without
kpartx
devices so you can access
Managing Multipath I/O for Devices
) do not
md.conf
configuration file
/dev/
47