Changing IP address of a host in Navisphere 6 (EMC array)

Question

We have a EMC CX4-120 array and manage it using Navisphere 6 web interface.

Some time in the past we have registered all the HBA of 5 different hosts. Now, we need to change the ip addresses of these hosts. Is there a way of changing the IP addresses of the hosts in Navisphere as well? If not what are the consequences of not changing them (the HBA are still the same) or deleting the hosts and trying the publish once again to 'different' host?

Solution

You should be able to do this the same way you can fix problems with multi-homed servers where the agent mistakenly registers an ip-address that is inaccessible to the array's management interface (e.g. where a private cluster\heartbeat network address gets registered rather than the correct management interface address). For systems that are automatically registered using the Navisphere Agent the best way to do this is by updating the AgentID.txt file on the Servers and restarting the Navisphere agent as per these instructions.

For systems where you are not using an agent then using Navisphere Manager to deregister the old hosts addresses and recreate them with the new addresses - you will then need to ensure that the Storage Groups they belong to are still OK as they you will have to reassociate the servers with the appropriate Storage Groups again.

Comments

[Cid]

Thanks for the information! What are the risks involved in the second procedure (no agent)? My understanding is this: a) remove the host with the old ip/hostname from the storage group b) deregister c) register to the host with the right ip/hostname d) add to the storage group After adding the host back to the storage group is there some kind of a risk that the the luns won't be visible or will be visible under some different uuuid (sorry if I'm messing up the terminology, I'm not so familiar with it)?

[Helvick]

There's no significant risk with this approach provided you are working within a maintenance window. To be honest though if you don't have the Navisphere agent\NaviCLI tools installed on a server then the ip-address used in the host definition in Navisphere isn't doing much, the important mapping is always between the WWN's of the HBA's on the servers and the Name of the host - the Storage Group links the LUNs to the Hostname and the manual registration process tags the WWN's of the addapters to the hostname.