Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO)

Best Practices

Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices

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Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices

Document revision
Date 10/11/2010 10/21/2011 11/29/2011 Revision A B C Comments Initial Draft Corrected Errors Additional content on Server Core

THIS BEST PRACTICES GUIDE IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. 2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell. Dell, the DELL logo, the DELL badge, and Compellent are trademarks of Dell Inc. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own.

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Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices

Contents
Document revision ................................................................................................. 3 Contents .................................................................................................................. 4 General syntax ..................................................................................................... 6 Conventions ......................................................................................................... 6 Preface ................................................................................................................... 7 Audience ............................................................................................................ 7 Purpose .............................................................................................................. 7 Customer support .................................................................................................. 7 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 8 Introduction to Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) ................................................................ 8 Dell Compellent Storage Center connections ................................................................. 9 Legacy ports ................................................................................................... 9 Virtual ports ................................................................................................. 10 Conclusion.................................................................................................... 10 Configuring servers ................................................................................................... 11 Fibre Channel ............................................................................................... 11 iSCSI ........................................................................................................... 11 Automatic configuration ........................................................................................ 12 Manual configuration ............................................................................................ 13 Verifying connectivity ........................................................................................... 14 Choosing the IO transport ...................................................................................... 16 Using MPIO on Windows Server 2003 .............................................................................. 17 Dell Compellent Multipath Manager .......................................................................... 17 Configuration ..................................................................................................... 18 Which policy should you choose? .............................................................................. 19 iSCSI multipath options ......................................................................................... 20 Installing the Microsoft iSCSI DSM ....................................................................... 20 Configuring the iSCSI Initiator ................................................................................. 21 Configuring Microsoft iSCSI DSM ............................................................................... 24 Using MPIO on Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 .............................................................. 26 Installing the Microsoft MPIO DSM ............................................................................ 27 Server Manager GUI ........................................................................................ 27 Server Manager CLI ......................................................................................... 27 Page 4

Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices To install MPIO on server core: .......................................................................... 27 Associating Dell Compellent volumes with the DSM ....................................................... 28 Setting the default load balance policy ..................................................................... 29 Windows Server 2008 default load balance policy ................................................... 29 Windows Server 2008 R2 default load balance policy................................................ 29 Per-volume load balance settings ............................................................................. 30 Using MPCLAIM in 2008 R2 ................................................................................ 31 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 32

Tables
Table 1. Table 2. Document syntax ............................................................................................. 6 Windows 2008 R2 Load Balance Policy ................................................................. 29

Figures
Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4. Figure 5. Figure 6. Figure 7. Figure 8. Figure 9. Figure 10. Figure 11. Figure 12. Figure 13. Figure 14. Figure 15. Figure 16. Figure 17. Figure 18. Figure 19. Figure 20. Legacy Primary/Reserve Configuration ............................................................... 9 Virtual Ports Configuration ............................................................................ 10 Create Server ............................................................................................ 12 Manually defined HBA .................................................................................. 13 Connectivity Tab ........................................................................................ 14 Advanced Mapping Wizard ............................................................................. 15 Volume Mapping Tab ................................................................................... 16 Multipath Manager Configuration..................................................................... 18 Set Default Policy ....................................................................................... 18 Dell Compellent DSM with both FC and iSCSI ....................................................... 20 Installing MS iSCSI DSM .................................................................................. 20 Configure Discovery Targets ........................................................................... 21 Configure Multiple Logons for Each Target Portal ................................................. 22 System Manager iSCSI Connectivity................................................................... 23 iSCSI Initiator Connectivity Verification ............................................................. 23 Default Load Balance Policy ........................................................................... 24 Change policy for existing volumes .................................................................. 25 Disk Management ........................................................................................ 30 MPIO Settings Tab ....................................................................................... 31 List disks with MPCLAIM ................................................................................ 31

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Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices

General syntax
Table 1.
Item Menu items, dialog box titles, field names, keys Mouse click required User Input User typing required Website addresses Email addresses

Document syntax
Convention Bold Click: Monospace Font Type: http://www.compellent.com info@compellent.com

Conventions
Notes are used to convey special information or instructions.

Timesavers are tips specifically designed to save time or reduce the number of steps.

Caution indicates the potential for risk including system or data damage.

Warning indicates that failure to follow directions could result in bodily harm.

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Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices

Preface
Audience
The audience for this document is System Administrators who are responsible for the setup and maintenance of Windows servers and associated storage. Readers should have a working knowledge of Windows and the Dell Compellent Storage Center SAN.

Purpose
This document provides an overview of MPIO and introduces best practice guidelines for configuring MPIO on Windows servers 2003, 2008, and 2008 R2 when using the Dell Compellent Storage Center. For installation procedures, download the MPIO Users Guide from http://knowledgecenter.compellent.com.

Customer support
Dell Compellent provides live support 1-866-EZSTORE (866.397.8673), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. For additional support, email Dell Compellent at support@compellent.com. Dell Compellent responds to emails during normal business hours.

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Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices

Introduction
Introduction to Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO)
Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) is a framework that allows administrators to configure load balancing and failover processes for Fibre Channel and iSCSI connected storage devices. You can configure load balancing to use up to 32 independent paths from the connected storage devices. Although Dell Compellent Storage Centers provide redundancy and failover with multiple controllers and RAID, servers still need a way to spread the IO load and handle internal failover from one path to the next. This is where MPIO plays an important role. Without MPIO, servers see multiple instances of the same disk device in Disk Management. The MPIO framework uses Device Specific Modules (DSM) to allow path configuration. Currently there are two options available. Microsoft provides a built-in generic Microsoft DSM (MSDSM) for Windows Server 2008 and above. For Windows Server 2008 and above, use the MSDSM; it provides adequate functionality for Dell Compellent customers. Dell Compellent provides a DSM for Windows Server 2003 only.

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Dell Compellent Storage Center connections

Before reviewing server-specific MPIO functions, you must understand various connection options available with the Dell Compellent Storage Center that allow multiple paths to be presented to the servers. The following section provides a quick overview and explains the differences between Legacy Ports and Virtual Ports. This overview does not take the place of the Storage Center Connectivity Guide available on http://knowledgecenter.compellent.com

Legacy ports
In legacy mode, front-end IO ports are broken into primary and reserve ports based on a fault domain. Primary/reserved ports allow IO to use the primary path; the reserve port is in a standby mode until a primary port fails over to the reserve port. In terms of MPIO, this requires twice the IO ports to enable multiple paths. Even more ports are required for a dual fabric. Figure 1 illustrates dual-fabric failover ports in legacy mode.

Figure 1.

Legacy Primary/Reserve Configuration

Figure 1 shows four fault domains to the CT-SC040. Each fault domain has a primary and reserved port. For redundancy, a primary port connects to one controller; the reserved port in that fault domain connects to the other controller. While this is a highly robust failover solution, it requires a large number of ports. For this reason, Dell Compellent implemented Virtual Ports.

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Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices

Virtual ports
Dell Compellent introduced Virtual Ports in Storage Center 5.0. Virtual Ports allow all front-end IO ports to be virtualized. All front-end IO ports can be used at the same time for load balancing as well as failover to another port. Virtual Ports are available for Fibre Channel connections only, iSCSI connections only, or both Fibre Channel and iSCSI. Fibre Channel: To use Virtual Ports for Fibre Channel, all Fibre Channel switches and HBAs must support NPIV (N_Port ID Virtualization).

Figure 2.

Virtual Ports Configuration

Figure 2 shows a Virtual Port configuration. All ports of one transport type (Fibre Channel or iSCSI) are in the same fault domain. All ports are active. If one port fails, the load is distributed between the remaining ports. Failover is just as robust as shown in Figure 1, with half the ports. iSCSI iSCSI follows the same wiring and port setup as Fibre Channel with the exception of the Control Port. iSCSI uses a Control Port configured for each of the Fault Domains. Servers connect to the Control Port, which then redirects traffic to the appropriate virtual port. When configuring MPIO, this looks slightly different than with the Legacy Mode configuration because you need to assign only the Control Port in the iSCSI Initiator software. These differences are covered later in the OS-specific sections.

Conclusion
There are two methods to enable multiple paths from the Dell Compellent Storage Center, legacy ports and Virtual Ports. Virtual Ports are preferred because they reduce the number of HBAs required and thus reduce cost and overhead. Note that Virtual Ports are enabled based on protocol: you can enable Virtual Ports on Fibre Channel only, iSCSI only, or both.

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Configuring servers
Before configuring MPIO at the operating system level, configure servers in the Dell Compellent System Manager. The following example assumes a server has two or more Fibre Channel or iSCSI IO ports that are zoned/VLAN to see the controller HBAs. With Fibre Channel, the process is the same for Virtual Ports as for legacy ports. However, with Legacy Ports the server cannot see Reserve ports. iSCSI Virtual Ports connect only to a Control Port on the controller.

Fibre Channel
To create the server, properly zone the switches so that the server and controller ports are in the same zone. The easiest way to do this is to boot the server into the card's BIOS and scan the SCSI devices on each port. An alternate method is to preconfigure the WWN's of the HBAs in the Storage Center System Manager.

iSCSI
As with Fibre Channel, you can create an iSCSI server automatically or manually. For automatic configuration, enter the IP address of the controller HBA ports in the server iSCSI HBA or Initiator Software. Use either the HBA BIOS or the Software Initiator configuration wizard. In Virtual Port mode, enter the IP address of the Control Port. In Legacy mode, enter the IP address of the primary port. This is covered in more detail in the OS sections. However, creating a server in the Storage Center is the same on all operating systems.

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Automatic configuration
Once a server has scanned for devices or logged into the target, Storage Center automatically recognizes the WWN/IQN. To configure a server: 1. Login to the Dell Compellent System Manager. 2. In the tree view, right-click on Servers. 3. From the shortcut menu, select Create Server. 4. Select the appropriate HBAs and continue the wizard. If the HBA does not appear, refer to Manual Configuration. Note: If the WWN or IQN is not listed, make sure that the Only Show Up Connections box is unchecked.

Figure 3.

Create Server

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Manual configuration
To manually configure an HBA: 1. In the Create Serve wizard shown in Figure 3, click Manually Define HBA. 2. In the Select Transport Type window, choose Fibre Channel or iSCSI. 3. Enter the WWN or iSCSI name. Click Continue. Repeat for every WWN or iSCSI HBA to be associated with the server. 4. Once HBAs are added, check the appropriate HBA and continue the wizard. Note: The new HBA appears with a red X. Once the server is connected the red X is removed.

Figure 4.

Manually defined HBA

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Verifying connectivity
To verify that the connectivity is correct: 1. In the tree view, select a Server. 2. Click on Connectivity. This window shows all paths available to the server based on the HBA and controller ports.

Figure 5.

Connectivity Tab

The connectivity tab displays HBAs and controller ports the server can see. For Fibre Channel there are four possible paths: two HBAs see two Storage Center ports. However for iSCSI there are a total of six connections: two separate IP Addresses going to three Storage Center ports. If MPIO is not installed and the volume is mapped using the default mapping method, the server has visibility to a total of 10 paths to a volume.

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Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices In Storage Center, a volume is mapped to all available paths unless you use the advanced mapping button to restrict mapping paths to FC only, iSCSI only, or specified HBA ports and controller ports. To restrict mapping paths: 1. In the tree view, right-click on a Volume. 2. From the shortcut menu, select Map Volume to Server. The Map Volume to Server window appears. 3. Select a server and click Continue. The Map Volume window appears. 4. Click Advanced. 5. Check Only map using specified server ports. 6. Select one of the following: a. Limit ports by transport type. Select a transport from the drop-down menu. or b. Map using specific server ports . Check the specific server ports.

Figure 6.

Advanced Mapping Wizard

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Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices Assuming the default mapping wizard is used and paths are not restricted, a volume is mapped to all available paths, creating multiple IO paths from the server to the volume. To view the mapped paths 7. In the tree view, select a volume. 8. Click on the Mapping tab.

Figure 7.

Volume Mapping Tab

Figure 7 shows that MPIO Volume 1 was mapped to the server with four FC ports and two iSCSI ports.

Choosing the IO transport

Most organizations today have settled on Fibre Channel or iSCSI for the IO transport mechanism. With the advent of 10GB iSCSI, the difference in performance characteristics between these two protocols has gotten smaller. Choosing between these two depends on what the organization has in place today and where they are heading in the future. Dell Compellent offers both 8GB Fibre Channel and 10GB iSCSI. If you are looking for a converged fabric then iSCSI may be the best option because it can utilize existing networking infrastructure. However for most organizations, Fibre Channel remains the top choice for high bandwidth enterprise applications. The remainder of this document focuses on specific MPIO configuration options available from: Windows Server 2003 Dell Compellent provided DSM Windows Server 2008 and above MSDSM Microsoft iSCSI DSM.

It is assumed that there are multiple Front-End paths to the servers and that the servers have multiple connections to the controller.

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Using MPIO on Windows Server 2003

Windows Server 2003 offers two methods for handling MPIO: Storage Center ISV-provided DSM. Microsoft iSCSI DSM.

These two methods cannot be used concurrently in the Windows 2003 platform. This chapter describes each of these options and provides guidance on how to configure MPIO with both the Storage Center DSM and the Microsoft DSM.

Dell Compellent Multipath Manager

The Dell Compellent Multipath Manager is a Dell Compellent-provided DSM that handles all Fibre Channel and iSCSI failover and load balancing. Fibre Channel requires the Dell Compellent Multipath Manager. iSCSI can be configured with either the Microsoft iSCSI DSM or the Dell Compellent Multipath Manager. For information on installing and configuring the Dell Compellent Multipath Manager, refer to the Storage Center Multipath IO (MPIO) Manager for Microsoft Servers User Guide on the Dell Compellent Knowledge Center. Once the Dell Compellent DSM has been installed, configure the load balance policies for the volumes attached to the server. The default Load Balance policy for the Dell Compellent DSM is Failover-Only. However this can be changed to Round Robin or Round Robin Subset. Failover Only: Only one path is Active. IO fails over to the next available Standby path only when the Active path fails. The new Active path remains Active until another failover occurs. By default, the first discovered path is the Active path. You can configure the Failover Only policy to behave as Failback by setting the Active path and enabling the Preferred Path option. For Failback, the system fails back to the original Active path when it becomes available after a failover. Round Robin: All paths are active and IO is distributed across all paths. Round Robin Subset. Allows multiple Active and Standby paths and IO is distributed across all Active paths. Standby paths are used only when all Active paths fail. You can configure the Round Robin Subset policy to behave as Failback by explicitly setting one or more Active paths. For Failback, the system fails back to the original Active path when it becomes available after a failover.

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Configuration
To configure the default Load Balance policy or to change the active configuration of the DSM, open the Dell Compellent Multipath Manager Configuration wizard from the Program Files menu. Below is a brief overview of how to change the policies.

Figure 8.

Multipath Manager Configuration

To change the default load balance policy for all future volumes attached to the system: 1. Click Set Default Policy at the top of the screen. 2. In the Policy field, select a policy for the environment.

Figure 9.

Set Default Policy

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Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices To change the policy for a given device: 9. Click on the device. 10. From the drop down menu, set the load balance policy. Note: If moving to a round robin policy, notice that the device paths do not change from Standby to Active until the settings are applied and the wizard is restarted or refreshed.

Which policy should you choose?

Determining the best failover policy is accomplished by deciding which is more important for the application: failover, performance, or a combination of both. Cost also plays a significant role in the decision since having multiple paths adds to the overall cost of a solution. However in today's world of zero downtime, failover is required in most organizations. As mentioned previously in Failover Only mode, the server uses only one path at a time. While this ensures redundancy, it may not provide adequate bandwidth for certain workloads. Also any IO ports in standby mode are sitting idle until a failover occurs, resulting in underutilized resources in a data center. Round Robin, on the other hand, provides a means for IO to traverse all available paths while still providing a level of redundancy. If one path fails, the system uses the remaining paths to complete the request. Round Robin Subset is a mix of both of the above policies and provides greater granularity for managing when and where IO travels. With Round Robin Subset, you can group a set of ports to provide the benefits of round robin performance and provide a means for failover and failback with an alternate path or group of paths. Round Robin Subset is most commonly used when utilizing both FC and iSCSI transports for the same volume.

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iSCSI multipath options

As mentioned previously, the Dell Compellent Multipath Manager handles both FC and iSCSI connections. In the Dell Compellent Configuration window, you can see the transport for each connection and configure them for each volume.

Figure 10. Dell Compellent DSM with both FC and iSCSI

However, if you install the built-in Microsoft iSCSI DSM, the Dell Compellent Multipath Manager software must be uninstalled. Typically this is done for a server with volumes connected only via an iSCSI transport. Otherwise there is no way to control the Fibre Channel MPIO functionality. If the server has both transports in Windows Server 2003, the best practice is to use the Dell Compellent DSM and not install the Microsoft iSCSI DSM.

Installing the Microsoft iSCSI DSM

To install the MS iSCSI DSM, simply install the iSCSI initiator software and select the checkbox next to Microsoft MPIO Multipathing Support for iSCSI.

Figure 11. Installing MS iSCSI DSM

Once installed, all iSCSI volume MPIO characteristics are controlled by the MS iSCSI DSM. Before jumping into MPIO configuration with iSCSI you need to understand connecting and configuring the iSCSI initiator. Page 20

Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices

Configuring the iSCSI Initiator

Whether you use the MS DSM or the Dell Compellent DSM for iSCSI, the server must first be configured to communicate with the Dell Compellent iSCSI front-end ports. This section describes how to configure the iSCSI Initiator and make this connection. It assumes that the initiator software is installed, the server has been rebooted, and the Dell Compellent Storage Center has two or more iSCSI front-end ports. In the following examples, the server is configured with two NIC cards, each used to communicate with the iSCSI network. To configure the connection to the Dell Compellent Storage Center: 1. Open the iSCSI Initiator. 2. Click on the Discovery tab. The Discovery tab contains two sections, Target Portals and iSNS Servers. (iSNS Servers are described in another document.) Dell Compellent front-end ports are added as Target Portals. 3. Click on Add. If you are using Virtual Ports, enter the IP Address of the Control Port. If you are using Legacy Mode, enter the first Primary port IP Address. Do not enter Reserve ports. Continue until all front-end ports have been added.

Figure 12. Configure Discovery Targets

4. Click on the Targets tab. In this example there are two targets. For MPIO to function correctly, each of the NIC cards must be logged in to each target, thus providing multiple connections to that specific target. 5. Select the first target and click Log On. 6. Check Automatically Restore to reconnect after a reboot. 7. Check Enable multi-path. 8. Click Advanced.

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Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices The advanced options window is where you select each NIC card to connect to the target. This log-on sequence must be done for each IP address that communicates with the front-end port. In this example, it entered two times for each target. The following steps will make a connection for each. 9. Select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator from the Local adapter drop-down box. 10. Select the first IP address from the Source IP. 11. Select the Target Portal. 12. Select the necessary checkboxes for Data Digest and Header Digest. 13. Enter any Chap login information and click OK. 14. Select the same target and click Log On again. 15. Repeat steps 1-6 for each Source IP. 16. Select each additional Target and repeat steps 1-7.

Figure 13. Configure Multiple Logons for Each Target Portal

In this example, there are two targets and two source IP addresses. Each IP address is logged in to each target, creating four separate connections to the controller.

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Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices To verify: 1. Open the Dell Compellent System Manager. Create a server (if it hasn't already been done). 2. Click on the server in the tree view. 3. Click on the Connectivity tab. The connectivity window shows the IQN of the server and associated controller ports (target IP Addresses) that the server can see.

Figure 14. System Manager iSCSI Connectivity

As can be seen in Figure 14, the two Dell Compellent ports see each of the server IP addresses as being connected (10.5.25.33 and 10.5.25.40). The iSCSI Initiator is another method of verification: 1. From the Targets tab in the iSCSI Initiator, select each of the targets. 2. Click on Details. There are two connections for each of the targets. 3. Click on Connections to verify that each connection is using a different source IP address.

Figure 15. iSCSI Initiator Connectivity Verification

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Configuring Microsoft iSCSI DSM

At this point the server and the Dell Compellent Storage Center are connected and the connectivity has been verified. The next step is to use the Microsoft iSCSI DSM to configure the default load balance policy for any new volumes that are mapped to the server. To configure the default MPIO policy: 1. Open the iSCSI Initiator. 2. Click on the Targets tab. 3. Select each target and click on Details. Within the details section, there are two or more Identifiers. 4. Select each one and click on Connections. 5. Using the drop down menu, select an appropriate load balance policy for that connection, and click Apply. Note that this must be done for each connection.

Figure 16. Default Load Balance Policy

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Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices To configure the MPIO policy for pre-existing volumes: 1. Open the iSCSI Initiator. Click on Targets. 2. Select each of the targets. 3. Click Details. 4. Click Devices. 5. For each device, click Advanced. The Advanced window appears. 6. Click MPIO. 7. Select the appropriate policy for each volume. 8. Click Apply.

Figure 17. Change policy for existing volumes

The Microsoft iSCSI DSM offers three additional policies that the Dell Compellent DSM does not. Least Queue Depth: The DSM routes IO to the path with the least number of outstanding requests. Weighted Paths: A weight is assigned to each path. The weight indicates the relative priority of a given path. The larger the number the lower the priority. The DSM chooses the path with least weight. Least Blocks: The DSM routes requests to the processing path with the least number of pending IO blocks. In conclusion, there are two methods for handling MPIO in the Windows Server 2003 operating system. If you are using multiple protocols on the server, you must use the Dell Compellent Multipath Manager Software. However if iSCSI is the only transport, the Microsoft iSCSI DSM is a valid choice. Note: Remember that you cannot use both DSMs on the same server or there will be issues with the MPIO stack. Page 25

Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) Best Practices

Using MPIO on Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 now have a built in Microsoft DSM out of the box that manages all aspects of failover and load balancing. Dell Compellent uses this DSM because it provides all required functionality for our customers. This also simplifies implementation, as there is no other software piece to install and maintain in the infrastructure. Finally the built-in DSM for the Windows 2008 and above operating system has can manage both iSCSI and FC volumes. Note that the process for mapping volumes and creating servers is identical to the 2003 section described in Configuring Servers. It will not be covered again. The remaining sections cover Windows Server 2008 and R2 configuration options.

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Installing the Microsoft MPIO DSM

For Windows 2008 and above, the process of installing and configuring the Microsoft MPIO DSM has been streamlined. A new configuration tool, the Server Manager, provides a single interface for installing Features and Roles onto the server. To access Server Manager click on Start Administrative Tools Server Manager or click on the icon in the toolbar. There are currently two available options for installing the DSM: the Server Manager GUI or the servermanagercmd CLI.

Server Manager GUI

To install using the GUI: 1. Open the Server Manager. 2. In the tree view, click on Features. 3. Check MPIO. 4. Click Next. 5. Click Install. Once the feature has been installed click Yes, if prompted, to allow the reboot.

Server Manager CLI

To install using the CLI, open an elevated command prompt. Enter: Servermanagercmd -install "Multipath-IO"

To install MPIO on server core:

Windows Server 2008: At the command prompt, type start ocsetup MultipathIo Window Server 2008 R2: At the command prompt, type DISM /online /enable-feature:MultipathIo Note: For server core installation, the above commands are case sensitive and must be run before you can use the MPCLAIM command. At this point the Microsoft MPIO DSM has been installed but not configured. You must associate Dell Compellent volumes with the DSM so that it can manage MPIO characteristics. The Microsoft DSM manages all Fibre Channel and iSCSI volumes presented by the Dell Compellent Storage Center. You can choose either or both of these transports. You can also use the built-in iSCSI initiator or an iSCSI HBA; management of the iSCSI Multipath IO is the same. Because of recent enhancements, the iSCSI initiator provides all necessary performance and stability. However if you choose to use an HBA, it is still supported and available from Dell Compellent.

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Associating Dell Compellent volumes with the DSM

In the following section we will consider how to associate the DSM with Dell Compellent volumes and how to setup and configure the DSM based on the failover and load balancing policies of an organization. This section assumes that servers were created in the Dell Compellent System Manager and that at least one volume was mapped to the server via FC or iSCSI in an MPIO based configuration. To associate the DSM with Dell Compellent volumes: 1. Open the MPIO control panel by clicking Start Administrative Tools MPIO. 2. Once opened click on Discover Multi-Paths. 3. Under Others, COMPELNTCompellent Vol appears. Note: If COMPELNTCompellent Vol does not appear, rescan disk devices in Disk Management. Click on COMPELNT Compellent Vol. Click Add. This can take a minute. Disk Management prompts you to reboot the server. Accept the prompt and allow the reboot. This one-time reboot sets up the associations. Another option for providing associations is the MPCLAIM CLI command. Open an elevated command prompt and type the following: mpclaim.exe -r -i -d "COMPELNTCompellent Vol" This command provides the same result as the Control Panel version. It associates a Dell Compellent volume and then restarts the server. To bypass the reboot option, for rebooting later, use the -n option rather than the -r option. Once the server reboots, use the Disk Management control panel to verify that everything is correct. There should only be one listing for the volumes in disk management.

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Setting the default load balance policy

Once volumes are associated, specify the default load balance policy and change any existing volumes to use the new policy. There are some slight differences between Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 R2.

Windows Server 2008 default load balance policy

By default in Windows Server 2008, the Dell Compellent volumes have a default load balance policy of Failover Only because a Storage Center is not an ALUA device. Unfortunately in the 2008 product there is no way to change the default policy. Therefore it is imperative that the policy is changed to reflect the best practices of an organization each time a volume is mapped to the server. The same procedure is used to change the policy on a per-volume basis with both Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 R2.

Windows Server 2008 R2 default load balance policy

As of the 2008 R2 release, a Storage Center is designated as a Round Robin device by default. However, R2 provides a method for changing the default policy system-wide as well as on a per-volume basis. To change the default load balance policy in 2008 R2, use the MPCLAIM CLI command as follows: mpclaim.exe -L -M <0-7> -d "COMPELNTCompellent Vol" <0-7> refers to the desired load balance policy as shown in Table 1: Parameter 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Definition Clear the Policy Failover Only Round Robin Round Robin with Subset Least Queue Depth Weighted Paths Least Blocks Vendor Specific

Table 2.

Windows 2008 R2 Load Balance Policy

For example, to change all Dell Compellent volumes to a Failover Only policy, use the following command: mpclaim.exe -L -M 1 -d "COMPELNTCompellent Vol"

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Per-volume load balance settings

Now that you set the default policy, you must understand how to change the policy on a per-volume basis. Some organizations may require a different policy based on the type of application or service provided. Use Disk Management in both 2008 and R2 or through the MPCLAIM utility in 2008 R2 to change the per-volume policy. To change the policy in Disk Management: 1. Click Start Administrative Tools Server Manager. 2. In the tree view, click on Storage Disk Management.

Figure 18. Disk Management

3. Right-click on the Disk number column for the disk. Select Properties. 4. Select the MPIO tab.

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Figure 19. MPIO Settings Tab

5. From the drop-down box, select the appropriate MPIO policy for the volume. Refer to page 18 for a listing of the available policies and their intended functions.

Using MPCLAIM in 2008 R2

2008 R2 provides an enhanced MPCLAIM utility that allows the policy to be changed on a per-volume basis much like Disk Management. The command is similar to setting the default policy for all volumes; however in this case the administrator chooses which volume to set. List of all MPIO volumes on the system with the mpclaim command: mpclaim.exe -s -d

Figure 20. List disks with MPCLAIM

Figure 20 shows that the current policy for Disk 0 is RR or Round Robin. Use the mpclaim.exe command to change the policy for this disk. mpclaim.exe -L -M 1 -d 0 Refer to the Microsoft Technet site for the full MPCLAIM reference guide.

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Conclusion
Although there are some slight differences from one operating system to the other, the basic concepts of MPIO are straightforward and easy to implement. We hope this document has provided a good base of knowledge for getting started with Windows MPIO and the Dell Compellent Storage Center. By using the operating system level MPIO features and building a highly robust and highly available Dell Compellent architecture you can provide users with years of reliable and fast service.

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