Partitioning—General - Sun Microsystems storagetek sl500 Reference Manual

Partitioning—Feature
Partitioning—General
Partitioning has terms associated with it that you and your customer must
understand to effectively use the feature. In certain cases, these terms redefine
some concepts that are familiar with users of the traditional, non-partitioned
library configuration.
A "partition" is defined as the process of dividing portions of a library into discrete
sections. The partitioning feature offers great flexibility for users. A partition can be
as small as a single storage slot, a single CAP slot, or one tape drive if desired. A
library can also contain multiple partitions. Customers could also set up a single
and/or multiple partitions that are accessible by single or multiple hosts.
The key to understanding partitioning is knowing what partitions exist, their
boundaries, and who has access to the specific partitions that are configured.
Setting up a partition requires some important considerations:
If one partition designates several tape drives solely to its partition, no other
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partitions can use these tape drives.
Partition users must also anticipate how much storage area is needed for their
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resident tape volumes and the amount of free slots required.
CAP assignments are also critical. CAP slots can be specifically assigned to
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certain partitions or left open for common use. This will be discussed in detail
later.
Storage slots and drives that are not assigned a partition within a partitioned
library cannot be accessed. A customer could leave an area of slots unassigned, for
example, in preparation for a planned future partition.
The SCSI element numbering within partitioned libraries is continuous for each
partition, even if slot locations for each partition are non-contiguous. Using
FIGURE B-1
modules, SCSI element numbering begins at the first available slot in the base
module and continues through the cartridge expansion module slots. For the
partition owning the driving expansion module, the first slot in that module will
begin the element numbering for that partition and continue throughout the
module.
Partitioning—Access Control
The host definition consists of:
Host ID (WWN)
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Port number
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Logical unit number (LUN)
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Host definitions are assigned to specific partitions. Customers can assign multiple
host definitions to a single partition. However, they cannot assign the same host
definitions to multiple partitions.
242 SL500: Interface Reference Manual • July 2008
as an example, if one partition owns the base and cartridge expansion
Revision: F • 96122