Boot SAN and Multipath

A

armand

Hello,

Our organization has acquired Dell Server 610 with one Dual Canal Qlogic QLE2462.

The server has been connected to the Storage Area Network (3Par) and I have installed FreeBSD 8.1 (amd64) on a LUN with the traditional UFS filesystem. I have created 3 partitions :

  • /
  • /var
  • swap

The Boot San is working perfectly.

I have activated geom_multipath on the boot San disk.

Code: 
srvnas05# gmultipath list
Geom name: FREEBSD
Providers:
1. Name: multipath/FREEBSD
   Mediasize: 156766305792 (146G)
   Sectorsize: 512
   Mode: r1w1e3
Consumers:
1. Name: da0
   Mediasize: 156766306304 (146G)
   Sectorsize: 512
   Mode: r1w1e3
2. Name: da2
   Mediasize: 156766306304 (146G)
   Sectorsize: 512
   Mode: r1w1e3

After I have activated geom_multipath directly at boot :
Code: 
srvnas05# cat /boot/loader.conf
geom_multipath_load="YES"


and I have tried to mount the "/var" partition at boot via the geom_multipath device by changing the /etc/fstab from :

Code: 
/dev/da0s1d             /var            ufs     rw              2       2

to
Code: 
/dev/multipath/FREEBSDs1d     /var            ufs     rw              2       2

but after reboot i have this message :

Code: 
/dev/multipath/FREEBSDs1d: NO WRITE ACCESS
/dev/multipath/FREEBSDs1d: UNEXPECTED INCONSITENCY; run fsck MANUALLY
THE FOLLOWING FILE SYSTEM HAD AN UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY:
      ufs:/dev/multipath/FREEBSDs1d (/var)

My question is : is it possible to have write access on FS like / or /var at boot via the geom_multipath device ?

Thank you for your help.
 
My device are labelled. I used the "gmultipath label" to create my multipath device. I don't think that you can see gmultipath devices without having previously labelled some devices.
 
Interesting prob (for me) Ive not had to use FreeBSD with SAN disk yet.

armand said:
Hello,

The Boot San is working perfectly.
Click to expand...

So you can boot from SAN without problems without geom multipath?

armand said:
My question is : is it possible to have write access on FS like / or /var at boot via the geom_multipath device ?

Thank you for your help.
Click to expand...

So I dont have experience to give you an answer to this question, but how about a hack/work around... Can you boot with the original fstab entry, and then just have a script to mount the geom multipath device after boot? Obviously that has the issue that you cannot boot if the primary path is down, but it should then withstand a path failure when the system is up and running....?
 
AndyUKG said:
So you can boot from SAN without problems without geom multipath?
Click to expand...

Yes it is working perfectly.

AndyUKG said:
So I dont have experience to give you an answer to this question, but how about a hack/work around... Can you boot with the original fstab entry, and then just have a script to mount the geom multipath device after boot? Obviously that has the issue that you cannot boot if the primary path is down, but it should then withstand a path failure when the system is up and running....?
Click to expand...

It could be a solution, I'm going to try this.
 
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