How to register server HBAs to an EMC Clariion storage system

Question

I have just attached a Solaris box (an old Enterprise 420R) to a Clariion storage array via an Emulex HBA but the Navisphere software is only seeing the system via a hexadecimal reference ID not by the agent's hostname. When trying to assign storage my server is missing and the online help says:

Verify that the server is:

• physically connected to the storage system.
• the server's HBAs or NICs are registered to the storage system (either manually or via the Navisphere Server Utility or Host Agent).

Clearly the Clariion is seeing the server path (hence the hex code) so how do I register the HBAs to the storage system?

Solution 1

mrdenny's response is the right one. Ideally the Navisphere Host Agent will do this for you but if that is not working (give it a couple of minutes and a restart if possible) or not an option you can do this solely within Navisphere's Connectivity Status dialog.

Within Navisphere right click on the Array and select Connectivity Status. If your host is powered on and your Fabric Zoning has been correctly installed you should see entries with the WWN's (the hexadecimal strings you mention) of the HBA's from your server listed as logged in but not registered. Select these and hit the Register button. At this point you can select an existing host if you've already set one up or you can create a new host identity to map the WWN to. If you have a standard redundant setup with two HBA's routing through two separate Fabrics that are in turn connected to separate front end ports on each of the Storage Processors - this means you will typically have 4 entries to manually register. If the host was already registered with different HBA's you should remove these at the same time (assuming they have now been completely removed) in order to keep things neat.

Once you have the HBA's registered (each entry shows as logged in and registered in the Connectivity Status dialog) you can then check that the correct LUNS are assigned to the Storage Group for the host. If you are editing an existing Storage Group then you may need to refresh that directly by checking the Connectivity Status dialog for the Storage Group itself.

At this stage any LUNS in the storage group should be visible to the server - rescan for storage within the OS and it should be visible. Some OS's need a couple of scans for this to work - ESX is particularly sluggish if you rescan from within the VI Client for example.

Solution 2

Two ways

1.) setup "naviagent", a piece of software that runs on your servers and "phones home" to the management addresses of the storage processers and does the registration for you.

2.) manually, its somewhere in the navisphere gui. Its been 2+ years since I worked with it so sorry I don't remember exactly where, but if you dig around for "registration" or "register" by rightclicking on stuff or through the top menu bar you'll find it.

Comments

[Ryan Ferretti]

Right click on the Array. Select Connectivity Status. Select the connection, and click Register. It's better to install naviagent on the machine. It can take a few minutes the machine to register itself. It may require a reboot before the agent actually register's itself.