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How to verify AIX fibre channel configurations with multipathing I/O (MPIO)

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Applies to

  • ONTAP 
  • AIX host

Description

When using ALUA rather than NetApp's 'dotpaths' plugin, the sanlun lun show -p command shows all 'AIX MPIO Path Priority' settings with a value of '1.'
Assessing AIX MPIO path priority when the 'dotpaths' plugin is not used.
 Syslog and EMS messages:
[hostname: scsitarget.partnerPath.misconfigured:error]: FCP Partner Path Misconfigured.
[hostname: scsitarget.partnerPath.misconfigured:error]: FCP Partner Path Misconfigured - Host I/O access through a non-primary and non-optimal path was detected.

For more information on this error message, see article What do FCP Partner Path Misconfigured messages mean?

Terminology: 

  • Partner Path: Any path to LUNs that utilizes the partner node to access a LUN hosted by the local node. The LUNs are in an active-active cluster.
  • Non-primary path: Synonymous with partner path, proxy path and secondary path. All are examples of a non-primary path.
  • FCP target port: The fibre channel interface that provides FCP service to hosts.
  • Virtual Target Interconnect (VTIC) - The virtual FCP target interface seen in the initiator group list. VTIC is used to indicate that the initiator has access to a secondary path.

Description of the issue:
SANs often provide multiple paths to allow hosts to access LUNs. To maximize the redundancy of the SAN, the host operating system must use multipathing IO (MPIO) software. MPIO software monitors all available paths and will decide which path should be used for the operating system. AIX hosts might use either the built-in, native multipathing software or Veritas Dynamic Multipathing (DMP) software. The following process outlines how to observe the MPIO configuration. Steps to set the MPIO configuration are documented in the FCP AIX Host Utilities. The processes presented below assume the AIX Host Utilities software package is installed on the host, which provides the sanlun command.

Note: AIX Virtual IO Servers do not recognize commands such as dotpaths and sanlun, when using the padmin account. To run these commands, oem_setup_env mode must be used. Refer to AIX documentation for details about oem_setup_env in a Virtual IO Server environment.

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