HPUX host utilities changing active/active PVlinks to active/passive

mikemil — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:23:43 GMT

Good morning,

We have replaced EMC in a large government organisation and slowly building up an environment that the customer is happy with.

They have experienced less than expected performance (when compared with the old clariion) and I am trying to understand why (it could be perception).

A “sanlun lun show –p” shows me multi-pathing as A/A and failover provider as HP PV Links which I believed is only A/P capable (or was).

rdlisla2# sanlun lun show -p

MDSVRFAS01A:/vol/RDLISLA2UTILS/QTRDLISLA2UTILSLUN11/RDLISLA2UTILSLUN11.LUN (LUN 111)
Agile Filename: /dev/rdisk/disk38       VG: /dev/vgutils
   200g (214748364800)   lun state: GOOD
Filer_CF_State: Cluster Enabled Filer Partner: MDSVRFAS01B
Multipath_Policy: A/A
Multipath_Provider: HP PV Links
-------- --------- -------------------- ------ ------- ------- -------------
host     filer                 /dev/dsk        primary partner PVlinks
path     path                  filename host   filer   filer   path failover
state    type          or Hardware Path HBA    port    port    priority
-------- --------- -------------------- ------ ------- ------- -------------
up       primary      /dev/dsk/c19t13d7 fcd0   0d              0
up       primary      /dev/dsk/c16t13d7 fcd1   0h              1
up       secondary    /dev/dsk/c20t13d7 fcd0           0d      2
up       secondary    /dev/dsk/c17t13d7 fcd1           0h      3

A vgdisplay shows,

rdlisla2# vgdisplay -v /dev/vgutils

--- Volume groups ---

VG Name /dev/vgutils

VG Write Access read/write

VG Status available

Max LV 255

Cur LV 3

Open LV 3

Max PV 255

Cur PV 2

Act PV 2

Max PE per PV 8000

VGDA 4

PE Size (Mbytes) 32

Total PE 12798

Alloc PE 10974

Free PE 1824

Total PVG 0

Total Spare PVs 0

Total Spare PVs in use 0

VG Version 1.0

VG Max Size 63750g

VG Max Extents 2040000

--- Logical volumes ---

LV Name /dev/vgutils/lvol1

LV Status available/syncd

LV Size (Mbytes) 32000

Current LE 1000

Allocated PE 1000

Used PV 1

LV Name /dev/vgutils/lvol2

LV Status available/syncd

LV Size (Mbytes) 19168

Current LE 599

Allocated PE 599

Used PV 1

LV Name /dev/vgutils/lvol3

LV Status available/syncd

LV Size (Mbytes) 300000

Current LE 9375

Allocated PE 9375

Used PV 2

--- Physical volumes ---

PV Name /dev/dsk/c19t13d6

PV Name /dev/dsk/c16t13d6 Alternate Link

PV Name /dev/dsk/c20t13d6 Alternate Link

PV Name /dev/dsk/c17t13d6 Alternate Link

PV Status available

Total PE 6399

Free PE 0

Autoswitch On

Proactive Polling On

PV Name /dev/dsk/c19t13d7

PV Name /dev/dsk/c16t13d7 Alternate Link

PV Name /dev/dsk/c20t13d7 Alternate Link

PV Name /dev/dsk/c17t13d7 Alternate Link

PV Status available

Total PE 6399

Free PE 1824

Autoswitch On

Proactive Polling On

Could this be causing performance issues (as trying to use the alternate path and would have to time-out the requests that are sent down that path which – from memory – is around 60 seconds ).

If so, any idea how I can change it to be A/P

I look forward to any replies.

cheers

Mike

Re: HPUX host utilities changing active/active PVlinks to active/passive

adityav — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:11:59 GMT

Well to start with A/A mode with PV links is not supported. If you wish to use PV Links that is has to be with A/P. Kindly run /opt/NetApp/santools/bin/enable_ontap_pvlinks

However A/A will give you better performance with ALUA/Native Mpio.

Re: HPUX host utilities changing active/active PVlinks to active/passive

mikemil — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:45:58 GMT

The customer is telling me that enable_ontap_pvlinks has been run, yet it still shows A/A and PV links.

I am really looking at how I can change the PV links to A/P (and then take ALUA/MPIO multiplathing to them as an option).

I hope you can help.

cheers

Mike

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HPUX host utilities changing active/active PVlinks to active/passive

Re: HPUX host utilities changing active/active PVlinks to active/passive

Re: HPUX host utilities changing active/active PVlinks to active/passive