Open Systems Compatibility And Functionality; Open Systems Host Platform Support; Open Systems Configuration - HP XP7 Owner's Manual

Open systems compatibility and functionality

The HP XP7 supports and offers many features and functions for the open-systems environment,
including:
Multi-initiator I/O configurations in which multiple host systems are attached to the same
fibre-channel interface
Fibre-channel arbitrated-loop (FC-AL) and fabric topologies
Command tag queuing
Industry-standard failover and logical volume management software
SNMP remote disk array management
The HP XP7's global cache enables any fibre-channel port to have access to any logical unit in
the disk array. In the HP XP7, each logical unit can be assigned to multiple fibre-channel ports to
provide I/O path failover and/or load balancing (with the appropriate middleware support) without
sacrificing cache coherency.
The user should plan for path failover (alternate pathing) to ensure the highest data availability.
The logical units can be mapped for access from multiple ports and/or multiple target IDs. The
number of connected hosts is limited only by the number of FC ports installed and the requirement
for alternate pathing within each host. If possible, the primary path and alternate paths should be
attached to different channel cards.

Open systems host platform support

The HP XP7 disk array supports most major open-system operating systems, such as Microsoft
Windows, Oracle Solaris, IBM AIX, Linux, HP-UX, and VMware. For more complete information
on the supported operating systems, go to: http://www.hp.com. Each supported platform has a
user guide that is included in the HP XP7 documentation set. See the HP XP7 Documentation
Roadmap for a complete list of HP XP7 user guides, including the host configuration guides.

Open systems configuration

After physical installation of the HP XP7 disk array has been completed, the user configures the
disk array for open-systems operations with assistance as needed from the HP representative.
Please see the following documents for information and instructions on configuring your HP XP7
disk array for open-systems operations:
The host configuration guides provide information and instructions on configuring the HP XP7
disk array and disk devices for attachment to the open-systems hosts.
NOTE:
the appropriate configuration guide for queue depth and other requirements.
The HP XP7 Remote Web Console User Guide provides instructions for installing, configuring,
and using Remote Web Console to perform resource and data management operations on
the HP XP7 disk array.
The HP XP7 Provisioning for Open Systems User Guide describes and provides instructions
for configuring the HP XP7 for host operations, including FC port configuration, LUN mapping,
host groups, host modes and host mode options, and LUN Security.
Each fibre-channel port on the HP XP7 disk array provides addressing capabilities for up to
2,048 LUNs across as many as 255 host groups, each with its own LUN 0, host mode, and
host mode options. Multiple host groups are supported using LUN Security.
52 Functional and operational characteristics
Queue depth and other parameters may need to be adjusted for the disk array. See