Re: Use LVM on /dev/mapper/diskname and iSCSI

["S. J. van Harmelen" <svh@dds.nl>]

On Tue, 2007-11-20 at 08:36 +0100, Tore Anderson wrote:
> * S. J. van Harmelen
> 
> > I have a storage server with an MD3000 attached to it. This server
> > runs the multipath-tools to create redundant paths:
> > 
> > root@storage:~# multipath -ll
> > <snip>
> > xen (360019b9000d7e11000004485473faa94) dm-0 DELL    ,MD3000        
> > [size=200G][features=0][hwhandler=0]
> > \_ round-robin 0 [prio=3][active]
> >  \_ 1:0:0:3 sde 8:64  [active][ready]
> > \_ round-robin 0 [prio=0][enabled]
> >  \_ 1:0:1:3 sdi 8:128 [active][ghost]
> > <snip>
> 
> I think you need hwhandler = "1 rdac" for the MD3000 to be able to fail
> over properly.  At least a colleague that have played with it told me so.

You are correct about that, but I did have some issues with the new
2.6.23.x kernels. So for testing I went back to a 2.6.22.x kernel which
does not have the RDAC hardware handler.

When I do use a 2.6.23.x kernel with the RDAC hardware handler I get the
following error: multipathd[6895]: segfault at
000000000000000a rip 00002b251f24394f rsp 00007fff8bfaa730 error 4 

Besides that it seems to work fine, but I do not know if this can be
disgarded?

> 
> > On the XenSource server I use a shared iSCSI storage so multiple
> > servers can access the same data so I can do live migrations. When I
> > add the storage XenSource creates a PV and then when I create a VM,
> > it creates LV's for each virtual harddisk.
> > 
> > So far so good I guess, as the XenSource machine uses the multipathed
> > drive, right?
> 
> You absolutely need to keep LVM (in dom0) from using /dev/sde or
> /dev/sdi as the PV (instead of /dev/mapper/xen).  You can accomplish
> this with a filter line in lvm.conf:
> 
> filter = [ "a|^/dev/mapper/xen$|", "r|.*|" ]
> 
> Which means that a device node that is exactly «/dev/mapper/xen» is
> considered a valid PV candidate, all other devices are rejected.

Will add this line to lvm.conf. Thanks!

> 
> >From the email you sent with earlier pvscan output you got /dev/dm-0 as
> the active PV, with pvs you got /dev/sde (and with both you got I/O
> errors to the passive paths).  It can't be relied upon that you'll get
> dm-0 (which is absolutely necessary if you want dm-multipath to serve
> any purpose) in the future unless you force LVM to only look for PVs in
> the multipath'ed block devices.
> 
> > Now I would like to take snapshots of the whole PV so I can make 
> > backups. My thoughts where to make a PV on /dev/mapper/xen that spans
> > the whole disk, and then create a single LV on it.
> 
> You can only take snapshots of LVs, not PVs.  And you would have to
> create a VG first with /dev/mapper/xen as a PV (you can't add LVs
> directly on PVs).  But I think you've got the basic idea correct.  :-)

Indeed, I understand :)

> 
> > If I then take the path to that single LV, say /dev/volumegroup/disk1
> > as target for iSCSI, then the XenSsource server should only see that
> > LV as the shared iSCSI repository.
> > 
> > But then XenSource wil create a PV and a couple of LV's in the
> > existing LV (created on the storage server and shared true iSCSI).
> > Could that create any problems or can I just do that?
> 
> I see no reason why that wouldn't work.  Try it and see?  Inside the
> domU the Linux kernel won't know that its available block devices are
> really mapped to another LVM implementation that runs in dom0.  LVM is
> probably clever enough to disregard that LV-containing-a-PV as a valid
> PV candidate, but if not the filter line in lvm.conf should handle it.

Oke, I will give it a try then.

Thanks,

Sander