How to?: Create a LUN and allocate it as a local disk.

[robert_moore]

<p> Hi. First post. Very familiar with SAN technologies, but new to NetApp (FAS3040 - Version 7.2.5.1). </p> <p> </p> <p> Stepping through FilerView, Volumes and created a volume called /vol/<strong>test</strong>. Stepping through LUNs, and path entered is <strong>/vol/test</strong>. LUN Protocol Type: Windows, size 1Gb. When I try to add the LUN I get a message in FilerView stating: <u><em>LUN Create: lun create: /vol/test already exists and is a directory</em>.</u> </p> <p> </p> <p> Can someone step me through the process of properly adding a LUN, or link a good document referencing the process? I want to allocate NetApp storage as a local disk on a server to test and validate the process for my own knowledge. Any help is much appreciated, thanks. </p> <p> </p>

[kusek]

By the sounds of it Robert, you're very close!

If you've created a volume /vol/test in order to create a lun inside of that, you'd need to point the lun to /vol/test/test.lun as an example.

If you happen to have SnapDrive (A software running on a client (Windows, Unix, etc) you can use that to provision/create the luns on your behalf allowing you to go through some easier steps to create this, in addition to the route you can use via Filerview.

Another area which may be of benefit, is the online help (HTML) within the filer itself in order to better acquaint yourself to the tools and steps available.

Furthermore, I would also suggest checking out the NOW site in order to look into a number of random questions you may as an additional resource outside of these forums and communities.

Look forward to your future questions on this and other topics. Let us know how it goes!

Christopher

[robert_moore]

Hi Christopher. I'm glad to hear I was on the right track. Thanks for the response. I'm used to creating Raid Groups and then carving out LUNs from within them. Not sure what my problem was, after clearing my mind over the weekend and looking at it again today, I don't know what my issue was at the time. Just one of those days I guess. I've created a test lun but now I need to figure out how to map it to a server. I think my options are iSCSI and FCP. Again, I'm very new to NetApp so it'll take me some time to work-it-out, and in the interum any help from the experts is welcome.

Unfortunately I didn't purchase SnapDrive when I bought the SAN. It shouldn't be to hard for me to pitch though. The Pre-Sales team I test drove NetApp with demonstrated it during a preliminary meet-and-greet. It's small change and should help the management side of things substantially.

Again, thanks for the feed back, much appreciated.

[BrendonHiggins]

Welcome to NetApp world. I used to be into EMC but moved jobs last year and had to learn Netapp kit. Once you get past the new way of doing things it is great stuff. Get your boss to send you on the week long fundermentals course. I did mine after using the kit for 10 months. Wish I had do it at the start as I would have avoided many holes.

PS ~ Get into your NetApp account manager and best practice guys. They have beer funds!

[robert_moore]

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately I don't have the budget for any training. So I have to just pick this up on my own.

Cheers

[BrendonHiggins]

The user group meetings are a great place to get loads information for minimal effort. The UK NetApp user group allows you to go to the 1st meeting free and you can not say better value than thet!

Are you still struggling with the LUN creation?

[robert_moore]

I seem to be all set with the creation of the LUN itself, I'm just trying to manage the mapping now. I'm mapping with FCP (xx:xx:xx etc) and have the WWPN for the HBA I have zoned to my fabric, but still need to figure out how to get my server to see the disk on the NetApp. I say that because after attempting to map to the server, and selecting rescan disks under disk management, I don't see any volumes discovered. I hope to have my hands on SnapDrive sooner rather than later, but for now I have to get used to the FilerView and I am struggling a little more that I'm used to. Any helpful advice?

[SHOWMESAN]

Hi.

Are you using CLI?

Putty or telnet may be used.

If yes, then it is quite simple - as you already have a volume, you can the "lun setup" command.

Follow the prompts to create, configure and map your new LUN.