SRA: How are initiator groups created during failover operations?

Applies to

• Storage Replication Adapter for SRM version 2.0

Answer

• During a failover operation, SRM will start compiling a list of initiators from ESXi hosts on the DR site. In the SRM logs, these events might look similar to the following:

2016-07-22T13:16:30.626-04:00 [04464 verbose 'Storage' opID=] Retrieved VM Kernel IP address
'' for host ''
2016-07-22T13:16:30.626-04:00 [04464 verbose 'Storage' opID=] Retrieved VM Kernel IP address
'' for host ''
2016-07-22T13:16:30.626-04:00 [04464 verbose 'Storage' opID=] Retrieved VM Kernel IP address
'' for host ''
2016-07-22T13:16:30.626-04:00 [04464 verbose 'Storage' opID=] Retrieved FC HBA 'vmhba1' for host ''
2016-07-22T13:16:30.626-04:00 [04464 verbose 'Storage' opID=] Retrieved FC HBA 'vmhba2' for host ''
2016-07-22T13:16:30.626-04:00 [04464 verbose 'Storage' opID=] Retrieved FC HBA 'vmhba1' for host ''
2016-07-22T13:16:30.626-04:00 [04464 verbose 'Storage' opID=] Retrieved FC HBA 'vmhba2' for host ''

• These initiators are added by SRM into an 'access group':

2016-07-22T13:16:30.626-04:00 [04464 verbose 'Storage' opID=] Added
initiators to access group 'domain-***':
--> [{FC: 20:00:00:***}, {FC: 20:00:00:*****}, {FC: 20:00:00:*****},
{FC: 20:00:00:*****}, {FC: 20:00:00:*****}, {FC: 20:00:00:*****}, {FC:
{NFS:****}, {NFS: ****}, {NFS: ****}, 

• This 'access group' is then passed to SRA prior to the failover operation:

--> <AccessGroups>
--> <AccessGroup id="domain-c91">
--> <Initiator id="20:00:00:*****" type="FC"/>
--> <Initiator id="20:00:00:*****" type="FC"/>
--> <Initiator id="****" type="NFS"/>
--> <Initiator id="****" type="NFS"/>
--> </AccessGroup>
--> </AccessGroups>

• SRA will determine if there is an existing initiator group on the destination filer that matches either the iSCSI or FCP initiators being passed along to it. If there is a matching initiator group, SRA will re-use it. If existing initiator groups do not match the 'access group' that SRM has passed to SRA, then SRA will create a new initiator group.
• If both iSCSI and FCP initiators are present in SRM's access group, then SRA will check to see if there is a matching iSCSI initiator group and a matching FCP initiator group.

Additional Information

N/A