Access Win 2000 SAN 1

[Datong]

Hello, I have a Windows 2000 server with a 6TB SAN attached but I cant seem to access it or manage it. I don'y know much about the setup of this system as its been in place a while and there is no documentation for it. How can I determine what the SAN comprises of and how do I manage it. The server has also been neglected for some time and is in need of a bit of TLC. Im looking for some pointers to get me in the right direction. If you dont have enough information please let me know what you need and I will try to find it out..
Thanks.

 

[itsp1965]

If I am not mistaken, Windows 2000 cannot natively mount SAN volumes (unlike Windows 2003). You will need to use whatever mgmt software you have avail for your SAN (you did not specify what type of SAN you are using)
To get a general idea about how SANs work, I would recommend you go to the SNIA website (

http://www.snia.org)

which provides tutorials on SAN basics.

 

[Datong]

Thanks, the only info I have so far is that it seems to be HP MPIO DSM (thats the snapin thats installed). I can get so far into it but cannot seem to do what the manuals says I should be able to. I am currently downloading an updated snapin / software so maybe I can get somewhee with this. If anyone knows more about HP MPIO DSM then please feel free to impart some knowledge or point me to a website.
Many thanks.

 

[Datong]

OK, I managed to get a little further. I can see 2 LUNs setup and the 2 nodes setup within. My thourghts now turn to "where is all the disk space I was told about gone ?". Each node has 4 drives in it and are seperated into 2 drives. Is there a way to see if there is unused space somewhere and if so how can I configure it.
Thanks.

 

[kmcferrin]

Usually within the SAN configuration software you not only create LUNs but you also map them to hosts or assign hosts as "owners" of the LUNs. Once you have done that, then you can usually do a "rescan disks" from within Disk Manager in Windows and the disk space will show up as available.

Of course, you may need to reboot a Win2K box before it shows up, and this is also assuming that your server is correctly connected to the SAN. What kind of SAN is it, and how is the server connected?

 

[Datong]

OK, the answers to your last 2 queries I dont know yet but that should be easy enough to find out. When you say assign hosts to LUNs I dont think this is the case here . Each node has 4 drives in it. One node is configured as drive J: and the other is assigned as x:. (Logical drives.) They dont appear to have host names defined (maybe I'm not looking in the right place ?) Oh, just found it on another screen. I can see 2 host names that look like they have been assigned to a node. I tried pinging them but got no reply. Maybe this is where the setup was ended previously. Assuming I can see the logical drives from explorer the SAN is attached. Many thanks for your help so far.

 

[kmcferrin]

Well, I'm beginning to wonder if you've actually got a SAN or if you've got something else. It sounds like HP hardware, and I know that they market a line of MSA hardware as SANs that are actually more like direct-attached external disk storage. Usually they are connected by SCSI, but sometimes by directly connected fiber running to HBAs in the servers. Usually there is only a single host attached.

But a SAN is a Storage Area Network, and usually refers to multiple hosts accessing a large storage device over fiber or copper connections and including switches, etc.

 

[Datong]

A very good point you make. I am beginning to wonder myself wether this company has been sold a lemon. The drives dont seem to be accessible in a SAN type way and there are no huge amounts of drive space missing. The boss is really going to be pissed off with someone when he finds out he doesnt have terrabytes of drive space and is not running a proper SAN. Oh well, you learn something everyday.
Thanks for all the info and advice.

 

[kmcferrin]

Well, I would be hesitant to go that far yet. You still haven't mentioned what make/model it is. And while dealing with SANs can be somewhat tricky if you're not familiar with them, it's entirely possible that what he bought was 100% appropriate for his needs and that people have just been using the wrong words to describe it.

 

[Datong]

Well, its Fibre attached and the boss is still convinced there is 6TB "somewhere". The kit is all HP (havent got model no.s yet) but apparently is under support so I'm checking down that route to see if they know how its all setup. Will report back later.
Thanks

 

[kmcferrin]

OK, if it's HP then it's probably an MSA. That means that you should be able to just look at the front of the array and add up the capacities of the disks that you see. When HP mounts drives in the hot-swap sled they usually have a sticker for the capacity.

Keep in mind that SANs and storage arrays are advertised with their "raw" capacities. So if you have a 15-disk array with 15x146 GB disks you will see it advertised as 2190 GB or 2.1 TB.

But in most SANs/arrays you lose at least one disk for the hot spare. So that leaves this example with 2044 GB or just about 1 TB (actually a tad under). Then you lose additional storage for parity (1 disk for RAID 3-5, 2 disks for RAID 6) or mirroring (half of the disks for mirroring). So you could conceivably buy a SAN/array that has 2190 GB of "raw" capacity (2.1 TB), but by the time you have it installed and configured you are down to 1022 GB of usable space.

And that doesn't even take into account that they sell drives based on 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes, whereas the computer sees 1 GB = 1,024,000,000 bytes. And then you lose a little more space yet to formatting.

 

[Datong]

Some more details have emerged. It is an HP Storageworks MSL6000. There are 4 sets of drives installed. 2 banks of : 6 x 300GB and 2 banks of 4 X 500GB, giving a total of 6.8TB (raw). On the MMC there is something called data protection system configured as EVA? Still cant account for all the space though as it doesnt show up anywhere. The disks do appear active.
Thanks.

 

[kmcferrin]

OK, let's drop back to the beginning. You said that the system has been in place for awhile but there are no docs for it an it has apparently been handed off to you. Can you tell me if it was ever working as intended, or if it was purchased/installed and it's never managed to work correctly? Because troubleshooting will be different depending on the case.

If this is a fresh install, then typically once you have connected all of the cables and installed the drives, you turn it on. Usually you have to have the FC HBAs installed on the server and configured correctly for this SAN, and then you would be able to use HPs management tools to connect to it. I know that on other SANs (EMC, EqualLogix, etc) you manage them over an ethernet interface that is plugged into the network. But I think that the HPs (at least the MSAs that I have used are managed via the fibre connections.

At any rate, if you can get into the management software you should be able to see the status of each connection, each drive, each LUN, etc. From there you can group the drives into a LUN and map them to servers, etc.

You mentioned earlier that you could see two LUNs and each LUN had two nodes? Can you get the properties for these LUNs and nodes? I suspect that they correspond to the "banks" that you mentioned above.

Also, it would be helpful if you could tell me what shows up under Disk Management in Windows 2000.

 

[Datong]

OK, managed (eventually) to d/l the software from HP. Then found I needed several other components before I could install it. (I'm beginning to hate HP's site, its so disjointed). Anyway, I have yet to install all of the software and see the reults.
In the Disk Management section there are a number of drives - none of which indicate a large amount of unused disk space. Even a re-scan yielded no more. I am going to take some snapshots of the screen and put them up on a site so that it may be easier to diagnose, I will let you know when I have done this.
Thanks.

 

[Datong]

OK, have a look here. Dont know if this is going to help any but let me know if you want more.

http://87.194.144.28/index.mht

 

[kmcferrin]

The pictures are kinda hard to read, but it looks like you've got an MMC snap-in that might be able to manage the SAN. From What I can tell, there are only two volumes created on the SAN that are mapped to your server, and they are mapped as J: and K: (or is it X:? I can't make it out).

In that snap-in on the level directly under the HP MPIO level (the dark colored icon just above the two LUNs), can you right-click and create a new LUN? If not, then I am suspecting that you're only seeing what is being presented to that particular server. Somewhere else there would be a tool to manage the SAN itself, create new LUNs, do the mappings, etc. If the software isn't installed on this server, then it might be installed on a different server or even a PC workstation. If the SAN has an ethernet connection to the network, then it's likely that there is some sort of browser-based config that you can do. Most of the fibre connected SANs that I have used still have management interfaces available over ethernet.

 

[Datong]

That all sounds very probable. Sorry about the quality of image, I'll spend more time on it next time. When I right click I do not get the option to create a new LUN, just set various type of load balancing. I guess that means that this is not the SAN management server and is administered from elsewhere. I have just managed to get some more information from the suppliers whom have told me they installed a Unix box which I fear is the manager. Dont know anything about Unix so this may be the end. Thanks for your help.

 

[kmcferrin]

It could be, but I haven't seen a SAN that required UNIX for a long time. If you look at the back of the hardware itself, do you see an ethernet connection?

 

[Datong]

Yes there is and it seems to be connected to 2 Windows 2003 servers. It would make sense having located the server as its called eva-mgt and fs1. Only problem now is getting access to the servers as we dont have the admin account details (this is where winternals pays for itself.) I will be trying this later amoungst everything else today. I have checked for a web interface but a port scan does not reveal any likely open ports. Ill keep you posted. Thanks.

 

[Datong]

OK, come to another dead end here. I have access to the two servers mentioned previously. Both are W2k3 standard and have the similar software installed (MMC Snapin and HP Utils) but I cant see anything out of the ordinary except HP ISEE whihc requires a login dont have yet. Am I missing something again or what is the software I'm looking for to manage this SAN.
Thanks.